


The Work of the Dark Lord

by For_The_Love_Of_Ghost



Category: Ghost (Sweden Band)
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:48:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 53,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23030434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/For_The_Love_Of_Ghost/pseuds/For_The_Love_Of_Ghost
Summary: Sister Stephanie has a specific job from the Dark Lord. He requests her to keep herself available until the specific person the Dark Lord wants her to be with comes about. She cannot help but think of what is in store for her when the new Cardinal comes to the church. What she doesn't know yet is that this specific Cardinal is going to give her a run for her money.
Relationships: Cardinal Copia/Reader, Cardinal Copia/Sister(s) of Sin
Comments: 30
Kudos: 51





	1. What Is In Store?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my very first work! I have written short stories before; however, I am looking for improvement! Let me know how ya'll think of this opening!

Sister Stephanie walked the halls to her dorm room. All the other sisters around her were giggling and laughing. There was going to be a new Cardinal coming to the church and they all wanted to see who it was so they can sink their claws into them. The Sister wanted nothing to do with this though. She had a job to do. That job was to keep her promise to the Dark Lord to keep herself available for whomever He had in store for her. However, she really couldn’t help but think of who this is going to be and why it is a Cardinal replacing The Third’s place in the church along with his position as the lead man of Ghost.  
When the sister got to her room, she threw off her veil and tore off her high heels – she was sore from doing the Dark Lord’s work in these fucking things. Why couldn’t Sister Imperator have them wear more comfortable shoes? Oh, that’s right. Because she’s fucking nuts.  
“Ugh, if only I had one day off in this place!” Sister Stephanie exclaimed as she flopped onto her bed face first. She runs paperwork for the lead sister and even helps other Cardinals around the church. She hasn’t had one day off since she ran away from her home to the church and was really wishing she could. The Dark Lord couldn’t possibly want to work all day, so why should she?  
She rolled over onto her back and began to peel her tights off her groaning as they got passed her knees. Her knees were so swollen along with her ankles. “I swear, if I had a say, I’d never wear those god-awful high heels again. They are ruining my figure!” the sister mumbled to herself as she hurled her tights across the room to the ever-growing dirty pile of clothes in the corner. “I’ll get to those eventually...whenever there is even some time in this place to even do personal work.” She stood, wobblily from her swollen legs and then took her habit off. Standing there in her bra and panties she looked herself over in the mirror.  
“Sheesh. I’m getting skinner by the day.” She thinks as she twirls to look at herself more closely in the mirror. All of a sudden there was a knock on her door. Sister Stephanie squeaked in shock – no one ever comes to see her at her room. Well, except for the occasional ghoul that tries to get into her pants. “One minute!” she yells towards the door whilst scrambling towards her closet to put on the quickest clothes she could. One tank top and a pair of sweatpants later, she goes to the door to answer it.  
“Sister Imperator, what a surprise. What can I do for you?” Sister Stephanie asks as she opens the door to see Sister Imperator looking rushed and anxious.  
“Sister, the Cardinal we have been expecting has arrived and I need your help. Put some…proper…clothes on and come to my office at once to help welcome him in.”  
“Couldn’t…you know…get another Sister of Sin to do it? This is the only time I have for myself.” Sister Stephanie said and looked to the side of her to see her dirty clothes pile looking at it as a prize for escape. “You see, I really need to get laundry done. If I don’t get my laundry done, then I will never have proper clothes to wear for you again.” She said with a smirk.  
Sister Imperator looked at her and then the pile of clothes and then back to her. “No. My office. Ten minutes. See you there.” She said and turned on her heels and walked off towards her office.  
Just as she rounded the corner, Sister Stephanie slammed her door shut. “Why does she need me?! Why is it always me!? UGH!” She started ranting to herself as she slapped the clothes, she just took off, back on. “Why the fuck does it matter. Who does this Cardinal think he is coming in here and taking our beloved Papa down from his pedestal? Why am I the one that has to come to meet him and welcome him to the church? Just…why…me!” She exclaimed lastly as she finally put on those heels that she absolutely despises.  
She trudged out the door and made her way to Sister Imperator’s office, slightly stomping on the way. She was super pissed, and she was going to let everyone know she was. This Cardinal is going to know who she is and that no one, and that means no one, can fuck with her and her alone time. She got to the office and before she could knock, there came a voice calling for her from behind.  
“Wait, sister!”  
Sister Stephanie turned around and saw The Third rushing towards her looking like he just ran a mile. “Hello, Papa.” She said as she bowed in respect.  
“Oh please. None of that bowing stuff with me. Come, now sister. I have told you this.” The Third said to her slightly out of breath.  
“Sorry, Papa. Uhm, if I may, why are you out of breath?”  
“Have you ever seen Sister Imperator when you are late?” He said giggling a little. Sister Stephanie gave a giggle too.  
“No, and I don’t think I want to. Shall we?” She said motioning towards the door. The Third just nodded and the sister knocked on the door.  
It opened immediately to see Imperator on the other side seething with fury. “You are a minute late you two. Get in here now. You know punctuality is key here in this church.” She says and then turns around to go back to her desk.  
Sister Stephanie side glances at Papa as he looks as if he got hit with a freight train. “Let’s not keep her waiting Papa.” She says as she walks in with Papa right behind her.


	2. The Nervous Cardinal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sister Stephanie gets to finally meet the Cardinal.

As they walked into the office, the atmosphere changed. Imperator’s office had this vibe of never ever coming out again to see the light of day. Standing in the farthest corner is a figure draped in red. “This must be the Cardinal.” Stephanie thought. “Why is he keeping to himself in a corner like that? Is this really the man to be the new leader?”  
“Thank you for finally joining us Papa, Sister. I’d like to introduce you to the new Cardinal.”  
“Hey, no offense Sister, but do I really need to be here? He’s my replacement and honestly, I don’t want to be around him when this occurs. I’m already pissed off that you and Papa Nihil decided to let this…” Papa starts and waves his hand towards the Cardinal in the corner “be the new leader. What gives anyway? I was great with the ladies” he says as he winks at Sister Stephanie and she giggles “and all the fans of Ghost love me.”  
Sister Imperator looks at The Third as if she is ready to leap over her desk and kill him herself. “You watch your tongue right now. You will show respect. The Cardinal here is going to be great. Better than you could ever be.” Imperator snaps at The Third fire rising in her eyes. Papa raises his hands in surrender and motions to Imperator to continue.  
“Great. Now that we got that shit out of the way, Cardinal, would you like to introduce yourself?” Imperator asked looking towards the Cardinal’s figure in the darkest corner of the room.  
Sister Stephanie could see the Cardinal tense up and the sound of squeaking leather came about as he wrung his hands together. “Great.” She thought. “He’s a nervous wreck and he’s supposed to be a leader? Yeah right.”  
The Cardinal stepped out of the dark corner and light began to shine on his face. Sister Stephanie could see that he had a white eye just like the other Papas. He had black sunken eyes as if he never sleeps. He had a small mustache and sideburns that framed his face. Under his cassocks, Stephanie could tell that he was very skinny. He shook with fear as he came forward to introduce himself. He cleared his throat and very quietly said “Copia. Cardinal Copia.”  
“Geeze, what a thick accent.” Stephanie thought as she just couldn’t get the sinking feeling of this nervous wreck ruining the church and their beloved band. It also seemed like The Third felt the same way.  
“Yeah. Great to meet you and all. Great to see you picked up a nervous bundle of nerves Sister. Can I go now before you decide that he can take the rest of my life too?” Papa snapped at the Sister as he already started for the door.  
Sister Imperator didn’t even say a word to him. She just followed him with her eyes of fire as he just walked out the door and slamming it shut.  
“Did…did I do something wrong, Sister?” Copia asked Imperator.  
“No. The Third is a big child. Ignore him. He will learn to get over it. Now, Cardinal, this here is Sister Stephanie. She is one of the most respected Sisters here. She does her duties and never gets into any trouble. From now on, you two shall be acquainted as work partners.”  
“I’m sorry what?” both Copia and Stephanie said almost in unison.  
“Sister, you will no longer work for me and the other Cardinals. Cardinal Copia here has a lot of work to do and, since you are so good at staying focused with your work while the other sisters are distracted by any man with two legs, you will assist him.”  
Sister Stephanie just stared at Imperator with an awestruck look. She couldn’t even say a word. Did she really say what she thought she said? She’ll work for this…this pitiful man? Her? Really?  
“Sister, is she alright?” Copia whispers to Imperator.  
“Sister straighten up and answer when you are being talked to you hear me?” Imperator says sternly.  
“Uh, Uhm, yes Sister. Sorry, Sister. I’ll, uh…help the Cardinal as much as I can.” Stephanie said anger boiling underneath her calm composure.  
“Good. You start tomorrow. You are dismissed. As are you Cardinal. Have a great night.”  
Stephanie heads towards the door quickly – she has a bed that is calling her name and some feet that need to be called back from wherever they have gone in these shoes. As she started to walk quickly towards her dorm, she hears the Cardinal clear his throat.  
“Ahem, ah, uhm, Sister? I…uh…don't remember how to get to my room. Could you, uhm, help me?” Copia asked as Stephanie could hear his leather gloves squeaking together.  
Stephanie sighs as she wipes a hand down her face. She just wants to go back to her room and be as far away from the man that is currently the butt of her anger. Out of kindness though she decides to help him. “Yes, Cardinal. Which room is your room?”  
“It’s somewhere on the fourth floor.”  
“You…you don’t remember what room you got assigned?”  
“I’m sorry Sister. I was rushed into this room and right back out. I had no time to memorize what number I had.”  
“Sigh, alright. Let’s head up there and see if we can find it.”  
“Thank you, Sister.”  
So, they walked side by side towards the elevator – Stephanie making sure she kept her distance. The Cardinal kept his eyes down towards the floor as they walked. He still wrung his hands to the point that Stephanie thought that he’ll need a new pair of gloves by the time they even get to the elevator.   
Walking there you could hear her heels clicking and clacking against the marble floors. Every step she took she could see the Cardinal wince a little.  
“Why do you wear those insufferable shoes Sister? They look like they hurt.” The Cardinal finally speaks up as they enter the elevator.  
“Sister Imperator’s fucking rules. Since I work for her, she gets to chose what I wear so I’m proper for her.”  
“Hmm.” Is all he says, still not looking up from the floor. As the elevator opens to the fourth floor Stephanie is floored by how beautiful it is. Usually, the sisters are not allowed up on this floor since it is for the higher-ups. In this case, however, she was sure she got a pass.  
“Do you remember which way you came from Cardinal?” She asked.  
“Left, Sister.”  
They turned left and started heading down the hallway where there were beautiful paintings of all the previous Papas and even one of Sister Imperator and Papa Nihil when they were younger. She couldn’t help but gawk at all of the beautiful tapestry and decorations on this floor. As she does so, she doesn’t realize that the Cardinal stopped and she runs right into him.  
“I’m so sorry Sister. I should have said something.”  
“I’m sorry Cardinal. Don’t worry about it. Are you alright?”  
“Yes.” Was all he replied as he looked at the door trying to remember if he actually stopped at the right one. “I believe this is my room Sister. Thank you for helping me.” He said, eyes still looking towards the floor and hands going awry.  
“No problem Cardinal. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll meet you at Imperator’s office so we can get to work.” Sister Stephanie said as she turned to leave.  
“Good night Sister,” Cardinal said as he waived slightly towards her.  
Before she could get too far, she hears him call after her.  
“Oh, and Sister?”  
“Yes, Cardinal?”  
“You don’t work for Sister Imperator anymore. You can leave those shoes at home.”  
“I’m going to bury these shoes then.” Stephanie giggled in delight that she won’t be needing her heels anymore.  
The Cardinal blushed a little at the sister's laugh. “I’m sure you will. Good night Stephanie.” He says as he walks into his room and shuts the door.  
“Good night Cardinal.” The sister says to him even though he can’t hear her anymore and makes the trudge back to her dorm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter two already! I'll always try to update with two chapters each time. I cannot guarantee that it will be weekly due to my work schedule being wonky. However, I promise I'll update when possible! I'm already in love with this story! I hope all of you enjoy it!


	3. Getting To Know A Rat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie gets to see the Cardinal's office for the first time. She learns that he didn't come to the church alone.

The next morning, Sister Stephanie’s alarm goes off at 8 o’clock sharp. She rolls over and stops the alarm’s racket as quickly as possible. Groaning, she rolls out of bed and strolls to the bathroom to take her daily shower. Washing, she hummed her favorite Ghost tune, _He Is_ , while hoping that this “keeping herself available” comes to an end soon. She hates being alone. She can’t even keep friends very long since they all drop off the face of the planet when they start hooking up with other people. She will follow the Dark Lord every day, but dammit He could just hurry the fuck up.

After her shower, she starts getting her normal clothes on for the day. She starts to put on her heels when she remembers what the Cardinal said to her the night before - “You don’t work for Sister Imperator anymore. You can leave those shoes at home.” Gladly, she chucks the damn things to the back of her closet and fishes out her black flats. She shakes them out making sure there are no spiders in them since it has been forever that she has worn them.

She looks at herself one more time in the mirror making sure everything is in place and decides it was one of those days to wear her Grucifix necklace. With that in place, it was time to start heading towards Sister Imperator’s office. As she makes her way there, her own nerves began to get to her. “What is this going to be like? Is he strict? No. He can’t. He was so nervous to even say his name.” Sister Stephanie thinks to herself and before long, she made it to the office where the Cardinal was already waiting for her.

“Cardinal,” Stephanie says with a respectful bow.

“Ah, uhm, uh, Sister. No need to bow to me like that. We will be work partners. It’s a little disquieting if you were to do that each time we meet.” The Cardinal said his hands already fidgeting.

“Yes, Cardinal. Shall we make our way to your office?”

“Hmm.” Is all he responded and started walking away.

Stephanie kept up with him with ease and noticed that Copia kept side glancing at her. Every time he noticed that she saw him doing so, his eyes would dart to the floor quickly and a slight blush rose to his cheeks.

“You are shorter than I thought Sister.” The Cardinal finally stated.

“Excuse me?” Stephanie snapped back appalled by the lack of decency the Cardinal suddenly had.

“Those heels. They make you seem taller than what you really are.”

“Yeah? Well, you aren’t much taller than me and you don’t see me calling you short.” She snapped back again. She was embarrassed that he would even bring her height into the conversation. That was one of the things that she was self-conscious about even though she couldn’t fix it even if she wanted to.

“My apologies, Sister. I did not mean to offend. I was just making an astute observation.” He said his hands clinging so tight together that Stephanie did really think he was going to burn holes in his gloves.

She sighed. “I’m sorry Cardinal. I’m just very timorous when it comes to my height.” She really didn’t want to lose her position. Especially since she only has to stay in one room all day. With this man. All. Day. Okay, maybe it will be horrible…

“Hmm…” He said again as he slowed down. “Here’s my office. We can meet here from now on if you’d like?” Without an answer, he opened the door and went inside.

Stephanie stepped inside after him and shut the door. When she turned to look into the room, she was immediately greeted by many books. There were shelves of them full while there were some all over the room that couldn’t possibly fit on the shelves.

Around the room, it was adorned with glamourous curtains that were black and crested with gold and red. It was slightly dusty as well. Stephanie imagined that this office was not used in a while since most of the Cardinals already had their own offices and The Third didn’t do work like this. The furniture around the room included only a desk, an elaborate chair that the Cardinal placed at the desk, and two sitting chairs with a side table. All of this was covered in books of many sizes and colors. The walls were dark grey with black wood accents. “This would be a perfect room for a vampire.” Stephanie joked to herself.

Copia sits down at his desk and immediately starts working on what could only be paperwork. Stephanie just stood there awkwardly wondering what she needed to do. He wasn’t even courteous enough to give her a spot to work or even tell her what she needed to do.

“Ahem.” Stephanie cleared her throat to no avail. The Cardinal was already so deep in his work that he didn’t hear her. So, she decided to start clearing books off of a chair so she could at least sit down. She moved a couple of books when all of a sudden something small and furry moved quickly to the other side of the room. “What the unholy fuck was that fucking thing!?” She screeched running towards the door.

The Cardinal, now startled, looks up to see Stephanie across the room and something with beady little eyes is on the other side of the room.

“Ah. No need to fear Sister. It is only a rat.” He said calmly as if it was no bother.

“Oh…ok…yeah… ONLY JUST A FUCKING RAT!” She yelled frightened.

“Are…are you afraid of rats Sister?”

“Nah I’m just screaming for fun and decided to get some exercise by running across the room!” She snapped back forcefully and sarcastically.

Copia got up and walked over to where the pair of beady eyes awaited. “Come on Leo. Stop scaring the poor Sister.” He said bending over and picking up a brown rat. The rat squeaked and ran up to his shoulder and nestled into the Cardinal’s neck. “See he’s afraid of you too. Come.” He motioned for Stephanie to come to him.

“Yeah…how about no…” She said startled that this little rat just made a home on the Cardinal’s shoulder. “Wait. Did you name it Leo?” She said snapping out of her fear.

“Yes. Leonardo. Leo for short. Like the Italian polymath. I got him when living in the dorms at the church in Italy. It seemed…fitting…” He said as he scritched the rat under the chin and smiling slightly. He looked over at Stephanie again. “Come. Make friends. I promise he’ll warm up to you if you are willing.”

Stephanie gathered courage and slowly walked over to him. When she got close enough for her own comfort, she stopped.

“Hold out your hand to him like you would a dog or a cat. Let him sniff you so you can show him you show no harm.” Copia instructed her, and she did just that. Leo stared at her hand and slowly moved over and sniffed her fingers. After doing so, the little rat squeaked in what could only be known as delight. “Good. Come closer. Slowly though at first so you don’t frighten him. Let’s see if he’ll crawl upon you.”

Not knowing what really to do next other than obey what she was being told, Stephanie complied and got close enough to where Leo could sniff up her forearm. After a few minutes, Leo decided that Stephanie was a good perch and hopped up on her and to her shoulder. She couldn’t move. She didn’t know what to do.

“Oh, my fuck. I. Have. A rat. On. My. Shoulder.” Stephanie said slightly freaking out on the inside.

“Great job Sister. I knew you could do it.” He said with a smile. Then, looking downwards, he caught a glimpse of her necklace. “Oh, what a beautiful Grucifix that you have adorned yourself with today Sister.”

Stephanie looked down at her necklace and back up to him and suddenly realized how close they were. She was so close to him that their noses could touch at any moment. Blushing, she took a couple of steps back and her eyes immediately hit the floor.

“Ah, uhm. Thank you, Cardinal. It was a gift from the Dark Lord himself.” She said quietly while her eyes were still glued to the floor.

“Well the Dark Lord definitely knew how to chose something perfect for you Sister.” He said slightly blushing himself realizing why she stepped back so quickly. He cleared his throat and said, “Now, I’m sorry that I ignored you earlier and went into autopilot mode. Shall we get to work?”

Stephanie nodded still allowing Leo to stay on her shoulder.

“Great. Pull up one of those chairs and let’s get to work. I have a lot of deciphering of texts that I need to get done and it will get done a lot quicker with your help.”

“Yes, Cardinal.”

“Copia.”

“What?”

“Please, uhm, just call me Copia.”

Stephanie could see him blush a little and thought how many times could he blush more than she could?

“Alright. Let’s get to work shall we Copia?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been updated just a little bit. I changed the song at the beginning of the chapter because I realized I made a whoopsie haha. Enjoy!


	4. Playful Banter and Band Practice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie learns more about the Cardinal and gets to meet her family of ghouls again.

“Who knew that working with Copia would be so much fun?” Stephanie thought to herself while reading a very lengthy text that was given to her. This was now her third week working with the shy Cardinal and every day that she is with him, she learns something new about him and even about herself. The first week is that she can actually like rats. The second week was that he was embarrassed by his nickname “rat boy” that the other sisters called him while also pinning for his manhood. This week, she is learning how to read and speak in Latin more than she ever could before.

Every night when it turned eight o’clock, Copia would dismiss her. On her way back and even in her room, she ended up longing to be back in his presence. He was so wise and so kind that it swelled her heart with joy each time she saw him. He was not as shy as she thought he was – he, of course, has opened up to her more than everyone else around the church. When he talked to others, he went making squeaking leather noises and stumbling all over his words again. When speaking to her, it was the complete opposite.

Leo sat on the desk next to her text and she fed him little pieces of cheese and grapes occasionally throughout the day. “You’re going to make him fat,” Copia giggled watching Leo stuff down his tenth bite of cheese. “He’s happy he has found a new friend that will feed him better than I do aren’t you, you spoiled rat?” He asked the little rat scratching his head in between his ears. His little beady eyes looked up at Copia while chewing and just looked delighted to have two human beings loving on him.

Stephanie giggled at this and just gave Leo another piece of cheese. “If I feed him better, that means he loves me more than he loves you,” she said winking at the Cardinal who blushed at the statement and looked away quickly. Lately, Stephanie has noticed that even if she playfully banters back to him, he blushes and darts his eyes away from her and back to his work as if he was upset with the banter. She knew he wasn’t upset because he had tell-tale signs of when he was upset. He’d get stiff with her or even get short with her. She knew it was all mainly the stress from starting the practice routines for Ghost. He had so much on his plate that sometimes he just got so fed up over everything. She thought in that moment of what she could possibly do. “Copia?”

“Hmm?” He answered and looked up from his paperwork.

“Would you like some company at your practice tonight? I’d like to see how it goes and I would love to catch up with the ghouls. It’s been a while since I’ve seen them.”

“You…you want to come to see our practice? Like…see _me_ practice? Uhm…well, Sister…” he stammered.

Ah. She hit an area of his self-conscious side. “I’m sorry, Cardinal. I just really love the music. It hits home for me and has a special place in my heart. I just want to be able to hear you perform it before the rest of the world can.”

His hands started fidgeting again while he just stared at her blankly. The wheels in his head could be seen turning as he thought about what Stephanie said. “Alright. You can come. I’m sure the ghouls would be happy too.” He finally said.

Stephanie squealed with joy. She jumped out of her chair and sent Leo running. She herself ran around the desk and just landed a huge hug on the Cardinal. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” She squealed into the now stiff as a board Cardinal. She was so excited she didn’t let go of him for a moment.

“Ahem. Sister?” He said completely flustered. Shit.

“Oh, my goodness. I’m so sorry Copia!” She startled backward and fell straight onto the floor. Embarrassed to even move, she just sat there on the ground staring at him as he just stared right back.

“A-Are you alright Sister?” He asked a few seconds later.

She jumped up off the floor and dusted herself off and laughed through her embarrassment. “I’m fine Cardinal,” she said still laughing off what just occurred.

“Good. It’s time to go. Coming?” He said as he started walking towards the door. He knew her answer already. He just didn’t want to have her see him blush again.

Stephanie looked at the clock and didn’t realize that it was already time for practice rehearsals. “Yes!” She exclaimed in excitement and jogged after the Cardinal.

\--

They both arrived at the practice room and Stephanie was greeted by the sounds of guitars, clicking drumsticks, random piano notes, and a lot of laughter. She smiled at herself as she immediately felt at home.

“Ah, Cardinal you finally made it! Oh, unholy shit. Guys, it’s fucking Stephanie!” A tall husky ghoul exclaimed at the rest of his brethren. It got quiet for a couple of seconds while they all stared at her and all their eyes lit up all at once. A chorus of unholy fucks and many variations of that echoed throughout the room while the ghouls practically threw their instruments aside to come to see the popular sister.

“Where did you disappear to Sister?!” The husky ghoul known as Aether asked as he took her into a huge bear hug.

“Yeah! Last we knew you were fed to Sister Imperator and were to never be seen again!” A smaller ghoul known as Dewdrop said as he came and slapped her on the back welcoming her back in. The other ghouls Swiss, Mountain, and Rain laughed at Dew’s comment and hugged her saying how lovely she looked today.

Stephanie laughed. She felt like she was back with her family. She used to come to practices when The Third was leading and got to know all of these silly ghouls as brothers. “Guys, it’s not like I totally died. My ankles did for sure though! Copia here helped bring them back from the dead!” She said grabbing him by the elbow to bring him into their circle of family. The ghouls looked at her weirdly.

Aether was the first to speak. “What do you mean by that Steph?”

“Oh. Cardinal, did you not tell them about me?” She said looking at the Cardinal like a hurt puppy lost in the rain.

“I-I did! I just didn’t use your name. I-I did not know you guys were so close.” He said looking like he is starting to get super uncomfortable.

“Wait. This is the sister that you were confiding in us about you gro-” Dew started.

“YES!” The Cardinal abruptly interrupted.

“…okay…?” Dew said looking at Aether for help to which Aether just punched him in the shoulder hard. “Ow, what the fuck man?” He said hitting him back. As the two punched each other back and forth, the Cardinal pushed them away from each other looking at them like he was going to hit them both.

Looking back at Stephanie, he looked much more different than she has ever seen him. “Sister go take a seat. We need to practice.” Copia said to her with an authoritative voice that she never knew he had.

“Yes, Cardinal.” She said shocked and went and sat down.

“We are starting with the new album music today right Cardinal?” Mountain asked looking over his drum set.

“Yes, uh, let’s start with the first song that will go on the album.” He said prancing up to the microphone like a little schoolgirl giddy to start her first day of school.

Stephanie couldn’t help but giggle at this new Copia she is seeing in front of her. He is not shy, he is not flustered, and he is not afraid. He has taken charge. He is showing that nothing can get in his way now. “Wow. This is the vibes The Third gave off when he was practicing too. I was super wrong about him when I first met him.” She thought. After this thought, Copia counted to three and the music began.


	5. The Passing of the Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie gets to hear some of the new album and is in love with it. Later, the whole church gets some bad news.

Stephanie was suddenly greeted by a quick rhythm by the guitarist ghouls and a great beat by the drummer ghoul. Copia gripped the microphone stand with confidence and began singing the brand-new song she had never heard before. As soon as she heard Copia start singing, her heart leaped into her throat. She was so excited she couldn’t even stay seated.

“In times of turmoil. In times like these. Beliefs contagious, spreading disease,” Copia belted out these swaying his hips in time with the beat of the music. “This wretched mischief is now coursing through your souls. Never to let go. Never to let go. Them Rats!” Copia sang with vigor and rasp at the end. Stephanie could not believe her ears – this was amazing!

The rest of the song, she learned the chorus by heart and sang along with the practicing band. When the song was done, she was jumping for joy and squealing like a fangirl. “Oh my gosh, guys!” She yelled and ran towards them bounding with joy. She reached Copia first and she threw her arms around the now sweaty and heavy breathing Cardinal. “That was amazing! Oh my god! You are a genius Copia!” She yelled while gripping him tightly, so enthusiastic to not even notice him stiff as a board again.

“Hey Steph, you might wanna let him go before he breaks in half,” Dew snickered. Aether went over and punched him again, a little more forceful this time. “What the unholy fuck Aether!” He yelled and punched him back. While the ghouls bickered, Stephanie giggled and let Copia go.

“Y-you really think that was good?” Copia said still slightly out of breath. “I-I think it needs some improvement around the second chorus. Something that doesn’t get me so…well like this.” He said waving inwards to himself.

“Whatever you do, don’t change the fucking song,” Stephanie said with force staring him down. “It was fucking amazing Copia. You are fucking amazing. I had my doubts when I first met you, but damn you have proven me wrong time and time again.”

“Doubts? A-about me? What…what do you mean by that Sister?”

Shit. “Well…when I first met you, you were always embarrassed, fidgety, quiet, and kept to yourself. Now, I know how you are. You are going to do amazingly Copia.” She said beaming at him and inwards at herself for saving her own ass.

“Well…I guess I should take those compliments and keep on rolling here,” he said blushing slightly. “Go on. We need to continue.” He said slightly pushing her back to her seat.

“Okay, Copia! I can’t wait to hear what else you guys have in store!” Stephanie said excitedly wanting to hear more. She never felt this excited, even when The Third released more songs for _Meliora._

An hour went by and Stephanie was just glued to her seat. Song after song, she got the feeling of her soul being beckoned forth. Finally, the band decided to call it quits for the day. Copia said something about getting back to paperwork and sauntered over to her.

“Will we see you tomorrow too Steph?!” Aether called over to her. “It’s nice having our sister in crime back with us!”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world!” She called back to him as the ghouls packed up and started to leave the room.

“Well Sister, what do you think? Am I good enough to be a part of Ghost now?” Copia said with a wink.

Stephanie blushed and said, “Copia. I cannot doubt that the fans are going to love you and the music you have created here.” She started fidgeting with her Grucifix necklace that she hardly takes off now and Copia giggled at her.

“Are you anxious Sister?” He asked that made her stop fidgeting and stare at him in disbelief. All this time, she thought she was learning his tell-tales while he worked, but little did she know that he was studying her too. “You fidget with your necklace when you are anxious or over-excited Sister.” He stated to her and she dropped her hand quickly.

“Well…I’m over-excited at this moment Cardinal. I cannot wait for you to perform in front of all the fans and for me to be there sharing that moment with you.”

“Hmm…right…well…uh…with me?”

Fucking shit. That’s not how she meant it. “As a fellow churchgoer, Cardinal.”

Copia cleared his throat and blushed – hard. “Well, let’s quit wasting time Sister. There are texts that are still in need of translating.” He said and started towards the door quickly and Stephanie jogged after him back to his office.

\--

That night, the whole church was in a commotion. There was an emergency calling that everyone had to come to. Copia and Stephanie got word of this emergency while still trying to translate a specific text that had them both pretty stumped. So, they both went to the chapel together to find out what and why everyone was in distress. On the way there, many Sisters of Sin were crying and wailing in the hallways. Some of the ghouls looked completely out of it as well.

“Cardinal, do you know what is going on?” Stephanie whispered to him.

“No, unfortunately, I do not Sister. Let’s just get there quickly.” He said his hands already fidgeting. He really didn’t like being around a lot of people.

They got to the chapel and they had to find a spot in the back since the whole place was already packed. Up at the front, Papa Nihil and Sister Imperator stood looking solemn. Soon after they sat down, Sister Imperator called out for the crowd to quiet down.

“Alright. Now that we are all quiet, some of you have heard the news and others have not. This is a great shock to our church and to our faith. All three of our beloved Papas have been found dead.”

Gasps and wails could be heard throughout the whole chapel. “What?!” Stephanie called out herself in disbelief. The Cardinal just looked as awestruck as the rest of them.

“Yes, these are some dark times that the three brothers all fell together. We will have to mourn them as we move to the end of the week where there will be a ceremony for their passing. Please, go about your days as normally as possible. Papa Nihil and I will be looking into this further to find out what really happened and why it was so sudden. Fortunately, we still have a great leader among us that we can all look up to. Cardinal Copia, could you rise so we can see you!?” She called out. The Cardinal froze. He looked like he stopped breathing entirely.

“Copia, you gotta stand. When you do, this can all end.” Stephanie whispered to him and tugged at his arm to get him to stand.

The Cardinal, still in awe, stood slowly and was wobbly at that. As he stood, there was thunderous applause and many Sisters whistled at him as well. He sat down quickly and began tugging at his gloves he was wearing.

“Thank you, Cardinal! You will be a great leader, and everyone thanks you for it!” Sister Imperator boomed out. “You all can go back to your day.”

The Cardinal stood up very quickly and basically ran out of the chapel as quickly as he could. Stephanie followed as quickly as she could to try and keep up; however, it was very difficult since the rest of the church tried to follow after him.

Finally, she evaded the crowd and made it back to his office. There, he was found at his desk, face down on it, and breathing quite rapidly.

“C-Copia? Can…can I do anything to help?” Stephanie stammered out not knowing what she could really do.

The Cardinal rose his head from his desk, looked straight into her eyes, and sighed. “I knew this was coming eventually…” He said and just put his head back on his desk. Stephanie walked over and sat next to him in her own chair.

“What do you mean by that Cardinal?”

Muffled by the desk Copia said, “Sister Imperator told me the day I was arriving that there were going to be three great changes to the church. I asked her what she meant by that and she told me to not worry about it – that the other Papas had to worry about it more. Little did I know she meant this. Sister, I think Papa Nihil and Sister Imperator did this.”

Stephanie gasped. “Y-you really…you really think that’s what happened?”

The Cardinal looked up at her. “Without a doubt. And now, I’m the true leader. What does that mean for me Sister? Am I to be murdered too?”

Stephanie grabbed him by the shoulder tightly. “No. I will make sure of it Copia. There is no way that anyone is going to get to you. They have to go through me first.”

Copia giggled a little. Good. She lifted his spirits enough to get a giggle. “Damn. Watch out, Stephanie’s going to protect the weak Cardinal.”

She smiled and smiled more internally. This was the first time he actually said her name and not sister.

“Damn right I’m going to protect you. I’m going to make sure nothing happens to you because Leo would be so devastated.” She said giggling.

“Oh, Leo. My poor rat. He would be so sad without me.” He said playing along.

Through their laughter, the word rat caught her attention enough to remember to earlier in the day.

  
“Hey Copia, what’s the first song you guys did today?”

  
“It’ll be called Rats.” He said laughing at what she was getting at.

“Ah. Leo would look so cute in a suit on stage!” She laughed. “So, what’s this album going to be called?”

  
“The album? I uh…I didn’t get that far honestly. I just know that I want it to be a new beginning for Ghost. To show that I can be a great singer for the band.”

He sat in silence for a moment and stared at the text in front of them. One word popped out at him in the text. “I got it!”

“What?”

“The album name. I know what to call it!”

  
“Well, what is it?”

  
Copia gripped Stephanie’s hands in his and squeezed in happiness. _Prequelle_.


	6. The Falling of the Grucifix

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the day of the funeral and Stephanie is finally being real with her feelings for Copia. Little does she know that the Dark Lord Himself has plans for her instead.

Stephanie and Copia sat up front in the chapel dressed in all black for the funeral of all three dead Papas. Behind them, they could hear sniffles and heavy crying. Stephanie would be back there with the emotional sisters, but Copia pulled some strings so that she could sit with him instead. Something about needing emotional support from someone he works closely with.

The whole week, Stephanie and the Cardinal had been spending more time together outside of work. He has been an emotional wreck after finding out he has more power than what he even wants, and Stephanie wanted to be there with him to help him. She hated to admit it out loud to others, but she feels that she needs to help him as much as possible. What’s more like it is that she is starting to just _feel_ for him. The way he blushes at her banter, the way he started to hug her back when she hugged him out of excitement, the way he would pat her leg or shoulder when complimenting her, the way he would ask her for all her input for _Prequelle_ , and, well, just everything. The way he moved, the way he talked, or even just the way he just looked at her.

Sitting next to him there in the chapel, she couldn’t help but keep mulling over these thoughts and began fidgeting with her necklace again. She again wouldn’t ever admit it, but ever since he said it looked good on her, she didn’t miss a day wearing it when she came to see him. “Dammit,” she thought, “I think I might be in love with him.” She looked out of the corner of her eye and she swore she caught the Cardinal staring at her. When she glanced over at him, she could see him take his gaze off of her quickly and back to the front where Sister Imperator droned on about how this is a tragedy and that no one could have thought it could happen blah, blah, blah.

“Lying bitch,” Stephanie whispered quietly enough that only Copia could hear her and he shushed her with a grin. “Did you just seriously shush me?” she whispered back.  
“Yes. Now shush. No need for more attention on us today.” He said forcefully as he propped his left leg on his other knee.

“Dammit. Even his knees are appealing to me.” Stephanie thought blushing slightly.

The bells in the chapel rang out signaling the final end of Sister Imperator’s lying ass speech and the end of the ceremony. “Thank fucking god this is over,” she said out loud turning towards Copia. “I’m guessing we are waiting for the crowd to dissipate before we leave?”

“You know me too well.” He said smiling at her. “Let’s just hope that doesn’t give an invitation to Imperator to come over here and talk to us. I would rather walk among the rest of the crowd than deal with that.” Stephanie laughed and then they sat in a comfortable silence between the two of them before finally deciding that it is better to just follow the crowd out before Imperator decided to come over to them.

“Sister, if you would like, you can have the rest of the day off,” Copia said to her as they reached the corridor where her dorm was.

“Are you kidding me? We have _so much_ work to do.” She said exaggerating and mocking him at the same time. “However, I would like to stop off so I can change out of these insufferable clothes and shoes.”

“I shall accompany you then,” He said leading her down the hall.

“Oh. Oh no Copia. There is no need for that. You can go on. I’ll meet you there.” Stephanie stammered out.

“I insist,” he said back.

She sighed. There was no backing out of this one. “Alright. Let’s go.”

She led him to her room and invited him inside.

“Th-this is your room?” Copia stood by the door in disbelief. “It’s so small. How do you cope?”

“What is your room bigger?” She asked as she dug through her closet for more comfortable clothes.

“Much. You’ll have to come see sometime Sister.” He said with ease. She turned around and looked at him. He wasn’t even looking at her – he was more fascinated with all of the posters she had hung up on her walls.

“Wow Steph, you must really like Ghost. You should have me listen to them sometime. I might like them too,” he said turning and winking at her.

She blushed really hard this time. She swoons really hard when he winks at her and feels butterflies flutter in her stomach. “Dammit, I must be in love.” She thought.

Flustered, she dropped her clothes and just stared at him while fidgeting yet again with her necklace. She swallowed hard, stopped fidgeting, and finally thinking of a quick-witted rebuttal said, “Well, I don’t think you’ll like them. They might be too heavy for your taste, and the new lead singer is something of a rat-man.” She said with a cocky grin and bent over to pick up her clothes again.

“Brutal Sister. Just brutal,” He laughed it off and went about looking around her room again.

“I’m going to go to the bathroom and change now Copia. Keep yourself entertained,” She said walking towards the bathroom.

“Oh, don’t worry. I will.” He said sitting on her bed.

She locked herself in the bathroom and began to strip. She could hear Copia outside get up and start moving around again. It sounded like he was picking through the things that she had laying out. “Hey! Don’t mess up my stuff! It’s an organized mess, and if anything is moved, I’ll know!” She called out, pulling a sweater on.

“Don’t worry Sister. I’m just looking at the books that you have. I didn’t know you were an avid reader.”

“More like was,” she said to herself as she shimmied some jeans on. She was so happy that Copia let her wear whatever she wanted and that she didn’t have to wear her habit every day anymore.

“You have a beautiful music collection Steph,” he said as it sounded like he was peeling through all her CDs. “There are bands in here that I didn’t even think you would even know.”  
“Like?”

“Avatar?”

“What? Johannes is awesome.”

“Metallica?”

“Can’t go wrong with some thrash in your life.”  
He let out a small laugh, “Uh, huh. What’s your excuse for the Lady Gaga collection you have?”

She came out of the bathroom as she put up her long red hair. “Don’t judge me! I like my pop music as much as I like my metal music.” And playfully slapped his hand away from her CD’s. “What do you listen to anyway? Oh. Let me guess. Rats squeaking right?” She said laughing.

“Wow, two rat jokes in one day. You are one brutal sister. Maybe I should ask Imperator to transfer you back to her and have someone else work for me instead,” he said winking at her.

“You wouldn’t even do that, and you know it,” she said playfully slapping his arm.

“Heh, yeah. You’re right. Guess I’m stuck with you.”

Stephanie just stuck her tongue out at him while she went to her dresser to grab socks. Sitting on her bed, she watched him galivant around her small room like a child in a candy store. He seemed very entranced in her belongings. She smiled at herself watching him, “I could get used to having him here in my room all the time.”

“What are you smiling at Steph?”

Shit. She has been discovered. Quickly she stammered out, “Oh I was just thinking about how excited you are to see all of my stuff in here as a child in a candy store.” Then began fidgeting with her necklace again.

“I know you are lying, or at least a little bit, Sister,” he said as he got closer to her and crouched down in front of her. “You fidget with things as much as I do my hands when I’m lying and or anxious. So, I know you are hiding something,” he said placing his hands on her knees.

She played with her necklace even harder this time and tried to stammer out a reply. She couldn’t think with him touching her like this. Heat rose to her face and she just couldn’t answer right. All of a sudden, her necklace broke off its chain and dropped to the floor.

Gasping, she stared at her Grucifix that was now laying on the floor right next to Copia’s left foot. “No. No this can’t be happening. Not now! No, no, no!” She started freaking out.

“Sister, no need to freak out. We can fix it. I’m sure the Dark Lord would understand. Please calm down,” he said moving his hands to her shoulders.

“No, Copia. You don’t understand!”

“Well help me understand Sister.”

“That necklace was made by the Dark Lord Himself.”  
“This I know Sister. You told me that before,” he said gripping her a little tighter.

“Copia, no! It was made by Him! It is indestructible!”

“I’m not following.”  
“It is only allowed to break when my duty to Him is about to be fulfilled!”

“Oh…” He said trailing off and looking down at the shining Grucifix on the floor. He let go of her and went to go pick it up.

“What…what are you doing?” Stephanie stammered out.

Copia picked it up, looked at it, and it changed colors and shape. It went from bright white to a more elaborate one that silver with red inside. A new chain formed itself as well as the one that was still around her neck disappeared. Stephanie stared at it, eyes widening as she watched it change before her eyes.

“Oh…oh my…” Copia only said staring at it, and then back at Stephanie. “Steph, what does this mean? You gotta know right?”

Stephanie nodded. She swallowed hard, slightly shaking, took it out of his hand. “The Dark Lord has announced who I am to be with to fulfill the prophecy. The Grucifix is to change colors to match that of the Grucifix that person wears.” She knew exactly who wore this Grucifix too.

“Do you know who?”

Oh, my fuck. Is he daft? “Yes, Copia. In fact, I’m very close to them.” She said not taking her eyes off his. She wrapped the new Grucifix around her neck and looked at it on her. It was gorgeous and shone with vigor as it continued to meld into something new.

“Who?” He asked.

Stephanie sighed, took his hands in hers, and just looked at him with a look.

Copia blushed at her holding his hands like this and stared at her waiting for an answer. She didn’t say anything and just stared at him like he was dumb. Suddenly it dawned on him.

“Oh, my unholy shit.”

“Wow, the Cardinal swears,” Stephanie said shocked.

The Cardinal stared at her and suddenly stood up. He offered her his hand to help her stand. “If I am thinking correctly Sister, then this is going to be the best day of my life.” He said wrapping his hands on her hips.

Stephanie couldn’t speak. She could barely even blink. He was touching her. He was touching her in a place she never thought he would.

Slowly, the Cardinal wrapped his arms around her and brought her close to him. He hugged her tightly in a way that she never thought she would have been by him. She was going through so many emotions she didn’t know what to do but be led by this man.

He pulled apart from her slightly and tilted her face up to his. Slowly, he leaned towards her and kissed her with such a passion that Stephanie thought her heart was going to blow out of her chest. She kissed him back with a hunger that was deep inside her and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Copia pulled back from the kiss breathless. “It’s me,” he said with a smile and kissed her again.


	7. Can We Talk?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie is getting ready for the day and Copia shows up unannounced wanting to talk about their sudden relationship.

After finding out that Copia is hers, Stephanie found herself wanting to spend even more time with the Cardinal. She longed for him every moment they were apart. She couldn’t sleep at night without thinking about him kissing her repeatedly before darkness would just take her.

After a whole week of sneaking around and kissing him whenever she could, she finally decided that it was time to come out with their relationship with the church. While in the shower, she thought about how the conversation would take place and that her Cardinal (oh yes, she is claiming ownership now) is going to say not right now. She planned through all the steps of him disagreeing with her and she just could not think of a way around it. She just decided she’s going to ask him and if he disagrees, then she won’t pursue the question any further. He had enough stress on his plate and she did not want to add more with her nagging him about their relationship.

After her shower, she dried out her hair and began to put it up in a bun. She hasn’t worn it like this in a while and she wanted to have her hair up to show off her newly formed Grucifix. Pinning her hair in place, she couldn’t help but just continuously thinking of how the Dark Lord planned for this to happen. “If the Dark Lord says that this is supposed to be who I’m with, then the church will just have to get over it,” she said smoothing out some parts of her hair to pin. The one that she was worried about the most was Imperator. What if she made her not work with him anymore because of this? She sighed as she wrapped a towel around her and went out to put clothes on.

She started pulling out clothes for her to wear when she heard a knock at her door. “Yes?” She called out.

“Steph, may I come in?” Copia said on the other side.

“Uh…not right now! Hold on!” She said frantically pulling clothes out of the closet. Dammit, she loved this man, but he just had to come at the most inconvenient time.

“This cannot wait. I’m coming in.” He said already opening the door. As he did so, Stephanie froze where she was. She couldn’t move an inch as she knew she couldn’t even make it to the bathroom in time.

“Steph, I want to talk to you ab-” He trailed off as he realized what he just walked into. His face turned bright red and he spun around quickly. “Oh, my goodness. I’m so sorry. Please, uh…uhm…dress. I promise I won’t look.” He said putting his hand up to cover his eyes even though he was already turned around.

“I told you to hold on!” She spat back as she frantically pulled on the clothes that she got out. Dammit, they don’t even match. She’s going to look horrible.

“I-I’m so sorry Steph…I…oh goodness are you done yet?” He stammered out as his free hand started fidgeting on its own.

She sighed as she looked down at herself. She looked horrible. “Yes, you can turn around now. Don’t make fun of me though. I didn’t really have time to plan much of an outfit.” He turned around slowly and smiled when he saw her. She wasn’t kidding. She ended up wearing a bright pink tank top, baby blue sweatpants, mismatched socks, and her hair was no longer in a perfect bun. “Hey, quit smiling at me as if I’m a child who just dressed herself for the first time will ya?” Stephanie said pouting and crossing her arms.

Copia just walked over to her, cupped her face in his hand, and kissed her. “No matter what you wear and no matter what you look like, you will always be beautiful in my eyes Stephanie,” he said as he pulled apart from their kiss. He tenderly kissed her forehead and backed away, his eyes gleaming.

Stephanie just blushed and grabbed his hands. “Thank you Copia,” she said smiling at him.

“I’m sorry for being rude. If you’d like, you can grab clothes that you feel comfortable with and go change in the bathroom. I’ll wait out here for you.”

  
“You have no idea how much I love you for saying that,” she said as she spun around to grab what exactly she wanted to wear for the day and not this abomination she was wearing currently. She did want to wear this tank top, but she wanted nice black skinny jeans, her black leather jacket, and some socks that actually matched. After grabbing these she winked at Copia before heading into the bathroom. “Dammit!” She yelled once she saw herself in the mirror.

“Are you alright?” Copia said as it sounded like he rushed towards the bathroom door.

“You made me ruin my hair you fuck!”

Copia laughed out loud as he walked away from the door. “Take all the time you need. I’ll just look through your music again. I’m intrigued by what you listen to.”

She sighed as she pulled her bun down to start over. “I swear if you make fun of me for any of it, I quit.”

“I don’t think quitting is something you can do anymore Steph. You are stuck with me now,” he said laughing as he pillaged through her CDs. “Are you okay if I listen to one of these?”

“Go for it,” she said slightly muffled from having bobby pins in her mouth.

He pulled out _Meliora_ and popped it into her stereo system. He knew she really likes this one and honestly, who wouldn’t? However, he decided to change his mind at the last minute and took it out immediately. He wanted to explore a little bit with her music tastes to see if any of it matched his. Near the end of her neatly alphabetized list, there was one by Volbeat that looked like it had been used a lot. “She must like this one a lot,” he thought as he pulled it out and saw that the title was _Beyond Hell/Above Heaven_. He popped it in and looked at the back of the case to see what songs there were. The second one sounded interesting to him and selected that track.

Stephanie, still in the bathroom working on her hair, suddenly heard one of her favorite Volbeat songs. “Of course, he found out which one I like the most on this album,” she thought to herself smiling. She couldn’t even help herself but sing along with it. “Well I've heard that the devil is walking around. I sold my soul way down in the dirt. But stole it back now forever in debt. And for a moment I don't even care. Until I felt his breath at my neck. And maybe even you can feel it too. He's on a strike and looking at you!” She sang along smiling. She finished her hair and was fully dressed so she walked out to see her Cardinal bobbing along with the music.

He felt her presence behind him, and he turned around to see her now even more stunning outfit. He sauntered over to her and kissed her again as the music blared.

After they kissed, Stephanie went back to singing along with the song while putting on her, what he could imagine since he has seen them so many times, favorite knee-high boots. As the breakdown occurred, Stephanie jumped up and started singing and dancing like a fool while laughing at the way she was being. Copia couldn’t help but laugh at loud at her knowing she’s making a fool of herself in front of him but not caring at all.

When the song ended, Stephanie bounded up to her stereo and shut it off and laughed some more. “Gah, it feels so good to just let loose sometimes,” she said as she walked over to Copia and hugged him. He hugged her back while stroking her back.

“We still need to talk cara mia,” he said softly into the top of her head.

“Oh, right,” she said backing up a bit and blushing. “What’s up?” She asked as she spun around to check herself in the mirror again to make sure everything was still straight after she just danced like that.

“I-I want to talk about our relationship. We…we never really discussed anything, and it all happened so quickly. I-I just want to know…well, I want to know we are on the same page, and, uh, and, I uh, want to, um…” he trailed off as he began fidgeting with his hands again.

Steph turned around and looked at him worried. “Is this not what you want Copia?” She asked softly as she felt like she was about to cry.

“No! I mean, no that is not it at all! I mean, yes I want you and everything about you…” he trailed off again completely frazzled.

Stephanie perked up realizing that he is just worried about how it happened and that they didn’t have time to really realize that it really did happen. “Copia, it’s ok. Calm down,” she said and wrapped herself around him. “I understand. Let’s talk huh?”

Copia took a deep breath and hugged her back. “Yes, lets. Would you like to stay here or go to my office?”

“Office. Then we can get to work.” She said grabbing his hand pulling him towards the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All lyrics in this belong to the writers and members of Volbeat. I do not own nor do I claim to own any of it.
> 
> Also, I promise there is some smut in the next chapter!


	8. Making Dreams a Reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new couple talk about their feelings for each other and it ends with new discoveries.

When they got to the office, they sat down on the newly furnished couch Copia got last week. Stephanie really liked this couch. It was large enough to sprawl out on, sleep on, read on, and even just lay there cuddling.

He turned towards her and grabbed her hands and held them in his. He realized just how much smaller her hands were than his. He had to stop thinking of her hands before his thoughts got the better of him. He cleared his throat. “So, how would you like to start this?” He asked rubbing his thumb against the top of her hand.

“Well…Copia…how about we start by explaining our feelings for each other since it seems we ended up hiding it from each other.”

“Heh. Well, I-I honestly liked you from the moment I saw you,” he said looking down to the floor embarrassed. “You held yourself so high, and I heard you spoke up against Imperator when she came to get you from your room that night. I admired you, and as we spent more and more time together, I ended up more than admiring you. I even confided in the ghouls about it since I couldn’t even tell you to your face,” he said still looking embarrassed.

“Is. Is that what Dew was getting at? You were growing feelings for me is what he was going to say?”

Copia just nodded and looked at her. “That day that Leo showed himself to you? Oh, praise Satan for how close you got to me. Of course, I couldn’t act on anything, so I just looked down and that’s when I saw your necklace for the first time,” he said as he picked up her necklace from her chest and holding it like it was very fragile.

“I wore it every day after that moment,” she said, “because it made me feel happy. For once I got a compliment from someone.”

“I noticed,” he said still looking at it, still in disbelief that it matched his Grucifix completely.

“Good.”

“Well, what about you Steph? When did you realize you felt something for me?” he said laying the Grucifix back down. It fit perfectly in between her cleavage. Seeing his Grucifix laying there on her chest like that was arousing. “Ugh, come on Copia. Stop thinking of her tits!” He thought, kicking himself internally.  
“Honestly, I’m not too sure when it really happened. I was fighting the feelings back because I never thought it would have been possible that it would work out or even that the feeling would be reciprocated. I began not fighting the feelings after…well after hearing you sing for the first time. I know that sounds like some dumb fairy tale shit, but it is true. I felt nothing but love for you in those moments and was even telling myself that I’m dumb for feeling this way.” She sighed and put her head in her hands. Copia rubbed her back consoling her, and still kicking himself inward for thinking of her sexually while talking about things like this, waiting for her to continue.

“When we started getting closer after the three brothers died, I really stopped fighting it. Everything you did made me smile. Your laugh, your smile, the way you would compliment me over small things, the way you blushed at my banter, the way you would finally hug me back, and even the way you fucking make your damn hands squeak when you are freaking out,” she laughed. “I never will understand how you haven’t had to go through multiple pairs of gloves by now because of it too,” she said laughing even harder.

Copia laughed along with her. He knew it was ridiculous how flustered he got over the slightest bit of social interactions outside of his Sister (yup, he’s taken ownership too), and he often wondered how people on the outside saw him when he got that way. It makes her smile at least, and that’s worth it. “Ti amo amore mio,” he said hugging her.

“What?” she said giggling hugging him back.

Pulling away, Copia began to feel embarrassed again. “It’s Italian, you know, my native tongue.”

“Well, I could tell that. I just don’t know what you said. Just like earlier when you called me…oh, what was it? Car mia or something that that?” She said looking flustered. “Damn if only he was teaching me Italian instead of Latin.” She thought to herself.

Copia giggled which made Stephanie smile. “Cara mia.”  
“Yes, that! What does that mean?”

“My darling.”

“Aww!” She said blushing. “So, what did you say now?”

He started playing with his gloves again and didn’t know how to tell her without saying it in a way she cannot understand. He was so embarrassed to be the first one to say it, so he just said it in Italian to make it easier. He always felt more relaxed saying his feelings like that since it was something he knew too well.

Stephanie grabbed his hands and held them still, gripping tightly and smiling at him. “It’s okay, you can tell me anything Copia. I promise. Anything,” she said lovingly and started rubbing her thumbs on the backs of his hands.

It was so calming, and it made him feel at ease. Something that doesn’t normally happen easily, except with her. She always has been able to get him to calm down quickly. She vanquishes the uneasiness with just a smile. “You can do this. Just tell her how you really feel. Not in your language, you dumbass.” He thought to himself and sighed. “I love you, my love.” He mumbled out.

Stephanie’s eyes widened. Did she hear what she thought she just heard? “Did…did you say the ‘L-word’ Copia?” she gasped out. She was pretty sure that’s what she heard. Oh, my goodness. He did say it, didn’t he?

He looked at her and nodded smirking a little bit, worried that she just did not feel the same about him yet…

Boy was he wrong.

Stephanie wrapped her arms around him so fast and squeezed him tightly, “Oh, I love you so much my Cardinal! Oh, so much! I love you!” she squealed as she hugged him.

Copia hugged her with such fierceness that he was afraid he was going to break her, but still did not let go. She said it back, dammit. He then laughed a bit, “ _My_ Cardinal huh?”

“Ha-ha yeah! You are mine and no one else’s!” she said squeezing him back hard again.

They stayed like this for a moment until they could hear a squeaking sound behind them. Leo was there staring up at them as if he was feeling bad for being left out. “Oh, Leo! How could we leave you out like this, come here you silly little rat!” Stephanie called to him. He bounded right up to her and she picked him up. She nuzzled her nose into his and kissed the top of his little head.

“Wow, giving more love to the rat than me. I see how it is,” Copia playfully said crossed his arms while looking away from them.

“Oh, come on now. I give you love too rat-man,” she laughed and playfully slapped his arm.

“Ouch. Still with the rat-man jokes huh Steph? When will they ever stop?” he exaggeratedly pouted.

She put Leo down on the floor in front of them, grabbed him by the shoulders, and kissed him. Copia ran his hand up her back to her neck and held her there in this kiss in what felt like forever. Stephanie was the first one to break the kiss and look at him with nothing but love and he looks at her the same. “Dammit Copia. I never thought I could feel this way.”

“Me neither; however, you didn’t answer my question, cara mia,” he said getting very serious all of a sudden, “so I’m going to have to torture you until I get an answer.” After this, he began tickling her forcefully.

“Gah, Copia! Stop!” She laughed as his nimble fingers dug into her, finding her most ticklish spots quickly. “Ok! Ok! I’ll stop! I’ll stop! Ah! I surrender!”

Laughing, Copia stopped and gave her a quick kiss. “Alright, I remember there being talk about working; however, cara mia, after this, I’m not really feeling it. Want to go get some dinner in the cafeteria with me?”

“Ooooh. Copia, are you asking me out on a cafeteria dinner date?” she giggled into her hand.

“Well. I wouldn’t call it a date; however, we can make it one and just have the food delivered here. I _am_ technically in charge now,” he said winking at her.

“Hmm…as tempting as that is, I honestly really want to finish that text we started yesterday. It has been haunting me in my dreams and would like my dreams to go back to what they were without that damn book.”

“Let the record show that Stephanie said she wanted to work over eating food,” he said grabbing her knee and rubbing it.

Damn, that’s a weakness for her. Well…just him rubbing her anywhere is a weakness for her. She blushed and Copia noticed what he was doing to her immediately. Has she been thinking about the same things he has? There was only one way to find out.

“Hmm…I’m wondering what these dreams are that you are talking about though Sister,” he said leaning closer to her and he watched her face get even redder. Yes, this is exactly what he thought. “I know that these dreams couldn’t have been about me, could they?” he asked in almost a whisper as he got closer to her face. He didn’t think her face could blush any harder. Inwardly, he was turning himself on thinking about her dreaming about him.

He leaned in all the way to her ear and whispered softly and seductively, “You have been dreaming about me, haven’t you, you naughty girl,” and he grabbed her quickly at her waist, “do you dream about this?” he asked as he bent down to her neck and nibbled at it. He was awarded by her mewling and her grabbing his forearms.

Stephanie could not think, nor could she speak. She was so hot, and she felt a warmth that started at her core and spread down to her crotch. “What about this?” he whispered against her skin as she felt him kiss down her neck to her collar bone and back up to her lips. She pressed herself into him as she felt him ask permission to enter her mouth with his tongue. Opening her own mouth, she greeted him, and it was better than she could ever imagine. She began listening to her primal instincts instead of her actual mind and quickly mounted him while still kissing him. Oh yes, much better than her dreams. She could feel him rub into her crotch as he kissed back down to her neck and bit her a little harder. She gasped out a moan and gripped his shoulders. His hands moved slowly up from her hips, up her sides, and ended up with him cupping her breasts. “Or this?” She moaned louder this time and gripped him harder.

“Yes…” was all she could get out between her moans betraying her.

While kissing her neck Copia began to speak, “You know…this would…be better…if we…moved to my room...” and he squeezed her breasts even harder. This made her moan very loudly. Damn, she is amazing.

“Mmh…I was thinking the same thing Copia…but then we’d have to stop…”

“Fuck,” he said and squeezed her again and licked up her neck.

“Damn…mmh…you can swear like that all you want while touching me like this…”

“Hmm…I might not want to take you out of this room if that means I have to stop this,” he said coming back up and kissing her as if he was starving for her.

She stopped kissing him and grinded her crotch into his now very noticeable bulge, which warranted a moan from him this time. “Damn. Much better than my dreams,” she said. “I never thought I’d actually get to hear you make that marvelous sound,” she said leaning in to kiss him again. Only one thought was on her mind, and she was going to make it finally happen. “Make me yours,” she said on his lips.

“Gladly.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here is some smut <3 I promise there will be more <3


	9. Who Knew Sinning Could Feel This Good?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie and Copia get intimate for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut alert! This whole chapter is smut. If you do not feel comfortable with it, please feel free to skip!

Copia peeled her jacket off her quickly and threw it across the room. Stephanie saw him stare at her breasts with a look of hunger in his eyes. He snatched one of them into his grasp and manipulated it making her moan with pleasure. She could feel him under her, hard, throbbing, and honestly much bigger than she ever expected. She ground against him increasing the pleasure she could feel through her jeans.

Copia grabbed her hips and stopped her. She looked at him confused until he wrapped his hands under her thighs, kissed her deeply, and stood up to carry her. She squeaked a little being picked up but soon was over the frightening feeling as he turned around and sat her back on the couch.

He stepped back to see her in all her glory of being all hot and bothered. He was throbbing so much and longing for her, but he wanted to make this right – after all, it was his first time and hers as well.

He knelt in front of her and grabbed behind her knees and pulled her forward. He made her squeak again in shock and it sent a chill down his spine and to his dick. He has been making her make so many new sounds that he has pondered about for some time now.

He slowly rubbed his hands up her legs intentionally avoiding her crotch for now. He went up to her button and undid it and unzipped her jeans. He helped her shimmy out of her jeans while watching her blush. Just to think, not too long before this, it could have just been easier to tear off her towel and fuck her there in her room – he had more decency than that though. He planted kisses up her thighs that made her sigh in pleasure. Then, he dove right to where he wanted and licked up her core.

“Oh, fuck Copia,” she moaned out feeling his tongue paint her panties. She then felt him slide them out of the way and felt the tickling sensation of his sideburns against her thighs and his mustache against her cunt. He licked up her whole slit and she moaned even louder. He did this over and over and she could feel herself wanting more yet enjoying the moment. She then felt one gloved finger begin to play with her entrance. That excited her even more.

“You are so wet for me, cara mia,” he whispered into her cunt and licked it again. “You taste so divine.” He groaned into her feeling his dick twitch with anticipation. It took all his power not to play with himself while playing with her. He continued to probe her opening with his finger until she began to beg for more.

“P-please…please give me more…” she begged as she squirmed with ecstasy. As soon as she begged, he could feel him dive his finger into her deeply. “Oh, shit. Yes…” She purred. She could feel his finger curl up inside her and hit all her spots as he slowly removed it again.

He brought his finger to his mouth and sucked off all her juices moaning at the taste. “Damn sister, you make sinning easy with how you taste.”

That’s it, she couldn’t take it anymore. No matter how much she loved all the pleasure she was getting from him, it was her turn. She scooted back up the couch which made Copia look at her with puppy dog eyes. She just gave him her sexiest look she could, and his look instantly changed to one of feverish lust. “Take your cassocks off Copia, it's my turn to help you feel good too,” she purred at him.

He stood so quickly he got lightheaded. His dick was so hard, he swore all the blood in his body was there – and it was all for her and only for her. He peeled off his clothes for her and they joined her jacket on the floor. She stared at him with hunger and it made his dick throb even harder. He wanted her so bad to the point where he didn’t even notice when she took her own clothes off until she pressed her whole naked body up against him. He rubbed his hands all over her body and it sent chills down her spine. He grabbed her breast with one hand and pinched a nipple with the other. She moaned so much for him he just didn’t know how much longer he could take it until his primal instincts took over and he just took her by force. That’s when he felt it. She grabbed his dick with force and with such quickness he didn’t expect it. “Shit,” he hissed.

She kissed him deeply while pumping him slowly, feeling him moan into her mouth. “Unholy fuck. You are much bigger than I expected my Cardinal,” she said trailing kisses down to his neck. “You are going to stretch me so good…” she purred into his ear. She could feel him twitch hard in her hand as she began to kiss down his chest. He seemed like he stopped breathing in anticipation of what was coming, and she loved knowing that she was the one doing it to him.

She became eye level with his throbbing member, and she looked up at him, looking deeply into his eyes as she flicked her tongue on his head.

He threw his head back and hissed. “Fuck,” was all he could say as she tortured him as he tortured her at first. He then looked down to see her slowly wrap her lips around him and swirl her tongue on his head as she slowly plunged his cock into the back of her throat. “Oh, fuck,” he hissed out with pleasure again, feeling her pick up speed. He could no longer speak as he felt the heat pool and coil inside him. If she kept this up, he would burst, but she didn’t show any signs of stopping.

He gripped her by her hair that had eventually fallen out of the bun she worked so hard to make, and thrust into the back of her throat, feeling the vibrations of her moan all around his dick. “Such a dirty sinner you are,” he muttered out as he continued to thrust into her mouth. His hips snapped in a more rugged rhythm as he felt himself nearing explosion. He wasn’t going to cum into the back of her throat though, no. He wanted her to taste his seed. Just before he came, he pulled himself out to where only his head was on her tongue and came hard, moaning her name.

Feeling him cum on her tongue was intoxicating and something she’s been dreaming of for weeks now. As he came down from his orgasm, she sucked him, making sure she got every last drop of his seed and swallowed it down. He tasted amazing – or to steal his words, divine.

“Mmmh,” she hummed licking her lips to make sure she got all of it.

“I-shit. That was more than amazing,” he said out of breath. “I-I didn’t hurt you, did I?” He asked stroking her cheek.

“Not at all. I loved every minute of it,” she said standing back up and kissing his cheek and leaned in to whisper, “and you are the one that tastes amazing. I’ll drink all your seed every time my Cardinal.”

He growled from deep within his chest, grabbed her by her ass, picked her up and then slammed her into the wall kissing her deeply. His cock rose back to attention almost immediately and it rubbed against her entrance.

She could feel him rubbing against her opening already ready and rearing to go again. She felt excited; however, slightly scared for what was about to happen. “He’s just so big,” she thought as she moaned into him as his head rubbed against her clit. She began panting as he continued to rub against her tiny bundle of nerves and she just gripped his shoulders in response.

“Don’t worry cara, I’ll be gentle,” he said moving his head to her opening.

She buried her head into his neck and began to feel him slowly thrust in and out little by little to help stretch her out. It hurt, and it hurt a lot to the point where she cried a bit.

“I-I’m sorry Steph. Do you want me to stop?” He asked worriedly.

“No!” she cried out. “Please don’t!”

“I’m hurting you too much cara, I feel I might be too much for your divine cunt to take,” he said shakily yet somehow still seductively.

“Please, Copia. Please do not stop. I want you to make me yours. I want to be yours.” She said and she could feel him twitch at that response.

“I’ll keep going slowly. Please tell me if I need to stop,” he said as he slowly picked up to where they left off. He let her bury her face into him, sometimes biting him which just turned him on even more, but he needed to stay slow and steady to not hurt her.

She cried a little more – he could feel her tears hit his skin, but she never said to stop. Soon, he could feel her insides give way to let him enter deeper and deeper inside of her until he no more to give. At this point, she stopped crying in pain and began panting in pleasure again. She could feel her walls squeeze him tightly every small thrust he made. He could feel his pleasure building up again and his dick getting even harder inside of her.

“Faster, Copia,” she panted into him. She didn’t have to tell him twice. He picked up the pace and her panting became moans – moans that were right in his ear. Thank Satan for this woman.

Soon she was asking for harder and faster thrusts as he could feel her walls tighten around him even harder.

“Are you close cara?” He moaned into her neck, biting slightly making her scream.

“Fuck Copia! Yes, please! Fuck me! Use me!” She cried out her head back against the wall.

He watched her tits dance in front of him and could see her basically almost crawl out of her skin in pleasure.

“Cum for me Stephanie,” he rasped out, “cum all over me.”

That did it for her. It all came spiraling out of her. She felt her whole body tense up and release the euphoric feeling. She came harder than she could think and screamed his name as he spilled inside of her, giving his sweet seed to her again.

There they stayed for a moment, forehead to forehead panting, coming down from their orgasms. They shared a sweet kiss as Copia slipped out of her – his cum spilling down her legs and on the floor. He put her legs back on the floor and cupped her cheek, pulling her in for a kiss.

“God damn, Copia,” she said still out of breath, “that was amazing.”

“You are amazing Stephanie,” he said kissing her again. “Let’s get you cleaned up, shall we?”

She nodded at him, blushing at the mess they made together and watched Copia disappear into the office bathroom only to return a couple of moments later with hot wet washcloths.

“Sit,” he said pointing towards the couch, “let me clean you up.”

She blushed again and went to sit on the couch. Ever so lightly, he cleaned her up, kissing her thighs occasionally. “Careful there, Copia. You keep that up, you’ll have to go another round with me,” she said sighing at the pleasure of him touching her so elegantly.

“As much as I would love to pleasure you some more, cara, I think I’m spent.”

“Mmmh, too bad too,” she said again with her head back against the couch.

He kissed her cunt one last time and stood up. “Shower?” He asked her, motioning his head back towards the bathroom and lending her a hand to help her up.

“Only if you join me,” she said grabbing his hand and stood with wobbly legs.

“I wouldn’t dream of missing it,” he said as he led her to the bathroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having so much fun with this story!   
> This is my first time writing something so..."smutty". Please let me know how it went because I want to do nothing but improve!


	10. Wrath, Tears, Happiness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new couple decides to finally talk to Imperator. Later, Copia asks Stephanie a serious question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be. I felt like I needed more sustenance in my work. Let me know how ya'll feel about longer chapters!

Stephanie woke up startled. She couldn’t remember falling asleep at all. She looked around and saw that she was in Copia’s office sleeping on the couch. At his desk, she could see him working on papers with Leo on his shoulder. She tried remembering when she fell asleep and how she got to the couch. All she could remember is getting out of the shower with Copia and getting back to work.

Copia looked over and saw that she was awake and smiled. “Good morning sleepyhead,” he said.

“Did…did I fall asleep working?” She asked rubbing her eyes trying to get them to adjust quicker.

“Mhm. You must have been very tired after our…well…our encounter,” he said blushing slightly.

She sat up and stretched. She hasn’t slept on a couch in a long time and she was very stiff from it. “Hey, do me a favor next time and just take me to my bed. This couch isn’t very comfortable,” she said stretching out her back.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I will if it ever occurs again,” he said looking down sadly as if he was a child in trouble.

“Don’t worry Copia. I’m not mad at all. Just stiff is all.”

Copia stood from his chair and walked over and sat next to her. “Would you like a massage to help your muscles?”

“Mmh…that sounds fantastic,” she said turning away from him so he can rub her back. Softly his fingers manipulated her skin and tight muscles and then he dug a little harder to get kinks out. After about fifteen minutes, she no longer felt so stiff. “Thank you, my Cardinal,” she said and turned around and pecked him on the lips. “What can I do to help you with your work?”

“No, no. You go ahead and head on back to your room. Rest on up, cara. We have a long day ahead of us. Unfortunately, it is not going to be spent working…” he trailed off and began to look anxious.

“What’s going on?”

“Well…I’ve had all night to think. I think we need to tell Imperator about our relationship. I’m sure a lot of people heard us yesterday anyway by how loud you were,” he said winking.

She blushed, “I-I’m sorry,” she said her eyes darting to the floor and her fingers started playing with her necklace, “but you are right. We need to tell her as much as I don’t want to. I’m afraid she will split us apart.”

“I fear that as well Sister. Don’t worry though. I will make sure that does not happen. I have power here in this church now – even if I don’t want it. I will fight through my anxiety,” he said grabbing her hand that was on her necklace, “and I will help you fight through yours too. You are one strong woman. I saw you stand up to her before, and I know that deep down you are one spunky woman – especially when you are pissed,” he said.

“Yeah. I do get pretty riled up if I’m pissed off about something don’t I?” she said laughing.

“I never want to have that anger towards me ever again,” he said rubbing his thumb on her hand. “That’s why I tried to make you happy that first day you came to work with me.”  
“Oh yeah? You mean when you called me short?” she said crossing her arms and staring at him with a cocked eyebrow.

He winced at her look and started to make his hands squeak again, “Heh…yes…that…”

Stephanie stared at him and then laughed hard, “Lighten up Copia! I’m not actually mad about that anymore. Yeah, I was then, but hey, you made it up to me.” She continued to laugh as Copia pouted at her and got up.

“Alright. Let us stop stalling and get to her office.”

Stephanie stopped laughing and just sighed. “Alright. Let’s get this over with. Hey, maybe she’ll just die from anger and we will be free!” She said hopping up from the couch.

Copia just laughed as they walked to their certain doom.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Excuse me?” Imperator said just staring at the two people in front of her. “Sister. I gave you this job to help the Cardinal, not to make him your sexual slave! I thought you were better than this!” She yelled as she busted out in anger. “And you!” she turned her attention to the Cardinal. “You are supposed to be a great leader for us here, yet here you are sleeping and getting with sisters as soon as you can!”

“Hold the fuck up,” Stephanie blurted out. Imperator sternly looked at her as if she were going to make her catch fire. “Not once did I fucking say it was like that. Not once did he fucking say that he’s going around and fucking anything with two legs. How fucking dare, you!” She yelled shaking with rage. “You want to stand there like you are so high and fucking mighty? Look around you some time and realize that your shit stinks too!” She yelled taking a step forward towards Imperator.

“Uhm, Stephanie? Don’t you think that-”

“Shut up!” she wheeled on him and he stopped talking. She turned her rage back on Imperator.

“Do you think that just because we came here to actually _tell you_ what happened means that you have the right to say that we are doing something completely different? Fucking hell Sister! Just look at my fucking necklace and tell me that I’m fucking lying!” She said yanking it off her neck.

Imperator knew what this necklace meant. She knew that it was His gift to her. She knew what was supposed to happen to it because she was there when He gifted it to her. She snatched it out of Stephanie’s hand and looked at it.

“In the name of all things unholy…” she said, her temper sizzling down as she stared at the necklace and back to the Grucifix that the Cardinal wore.

“Yeah. Exactly. So, if you would be so kind as to fuck off with all the shit you said before,” Stephanie said yanking her necklace back. The chain already fixed itself and she put it back on around her neck.

“Sister, if I may?” Copia started and stepped up next to Stephanie. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her to his side. “This woman here has done nothing but help me and this church. She follows His will and His way. I can not say anything negative about her nor should you. She has worked too fucking hard to deserve this and so have I – but more her than me.” He looked over at Stephanie who was still bubbling with rage and staring at Imperator with a look that could kill. “I love this woman with all my heart. She is the only sister I have gone after and she is the only sister for me. I do not wish it any other way.”

Imperator looked at Copia with awe. He was doing exactly what he said he would do – work through his anxiety. Her look turned stern again as she closed her eyes and sighed. “Get out.”

“What?” Stephanie all but yelled. “Are you-”

“Stephanie, let’s go,” Copia said turning her towards the door.

“No!” she said pulling away from him. “Not until _you_ apologize to the both of us for your shit ass attitude and then pray to the Dark Lord for shitting on what he wanted in the first place,” she spat at Imperator.

“Get. Out.” Imperator said with a clenched jaw.

“Cara, please. Let’s just leave. That’s about as good as it’s going to get,” he said calmly.

“Fuck this,” Stephanie said and she turned, threw open the door, and stormed out.

Copia looked at Imperator quickly before dashing out the door after her. She was already halfway down the hall before he caught up to her. “Stephanie, wait!” he called out.

She stopped dead in her tracks and wheeled around to see him there out of breath. She was pissed – super pissed. “I’m going to my room before I spill out here in the hallway,” she hissed through her teeth. “Don’t follow me,” she said to him and turned around and began briskly heading towards her room again.

Copia stood there in place for a moment before he decided it was probably better to follow her anyway. He just got to her room as she slammed the door shut and he could hear her let out a frustrated scream and then a loud crash. He tried to the doorknob and, shockingly, it was not locked. He opened the door slowly to see her curled up on her bed facing the wall and crying. He closed the door to where she could hear it, so she knew he was there. She didn’t roll over to look at him and continued to cry. He looked over and could see that she threw a book against her mirror and it shattered.

He stepped over the pieces of glass and sat next to her on her bed. He rubbed her back as she cried. He knew she wasn’t upset at him and he wanted to be there for her to console her.  
“I-I told you not to follow me,” she said through her sobs.

“Yet here I am,” he said continuing to rub her back. She sat up slowly and looked at him with red eyes and tear-streaked cheeks. She sniffled as she leaned into him and hugged him. “Go ahead, let it all out,” he said as he rubbed her back some more. She began balling her eyes out again. “It’s alright Stephanie. I’m right here for you. Take all the time you need.”

Stephanie began to calm down and hugged her Cardinal tighter. “Thank you,” she said through her sniffles. “I-I couldn’t have pulled myself together without you here.”

He kissed the top of her head and squeezed her back, “Anything for you Stephanie.” He took a deep breath, taking in her scent with it. “I love you.”

Stephanie looked up at him, her eyes still puffy from crying. “I-I love you Copia,” she said smiling. She looked back down and Copia continued to hold her as she squeezed him tightly. “That’s why I lost it on her. She does not have the right to speak to either one of us that way – especially you.” She laughed a little, “I guess I went a little over the top huh?”

Copia kissed the top of her head and laughed out his nose, “A little? Cara, you broke your mirror over it.”

“Fuck me,” she said groaning.

“I don’t think that would make you feel better,” he said smirking.

She leaned back and smacked his arm. He laughed again, “Don’t worry. I can get it replaced for you. Or…” he said trailing off thinking.

“Or?”

“Or…you could pack up all your stuff and leave this shitty little room behind.”

She looked at him confused. What was he implying?

“Well…Imperator didn’t say we couldn’t work together anymore, nor did she say we couldn’t be together. Satan forbid her say that because the Dark Lord would be pissed off at her, if not He already is,” he said slightly off-topic. Stephanie continued to stare at him confused. He sighed. “What I’m trying to get at is that you should come move into my room with me.”

Stephanie went from confused to beaming. “Really?”

“Yes. Will you come move in with me?”

Her eyes filled with tears again, but happy tears this time. “Oh my god yes! Yes, I will Copia!” she squealed and threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly and peppered him with kisses. “Help me pack!” she said jumping up with excitement.

“N-now?” he said surprised.

“I don’t want to spend another night away from you! Yes, now!”

Copia laughed and stood up and veered her away from all the broken glass. “Alright. Let’s get to work,” he said kissing her.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There they slowly packed up her stuff – slowly because Copia because super interested in everything she owned. A lot of ‘what’s this?’ and ‘what is this even for?’ came up from him as Stephanie just shoved stuff into boxes. Finally, she was all packed up and they picked up boxes and made the trudge up to the fifth floor. Luckily, there was an elevator. As Copia opened the door to his own new room as of a couple of weeks ago, Stephanie’s jaw dropped.

“Unholy fuck. You’ve been hiding this from me?” She said dropping off the box to look around the room in awe. His room was huge and had multiple rooms inside of it.

As you walk in the door, it was an open concept living room with a kitchen. There was another room off to the side that was lined with bookshelves with even more books than she thought he had in it. He also had a desk in there that had just as many books on it as his one in his office. The bathroom was massive. It had a stand-up shower that could hold at least five people in it, a jacuzzi tub that had room for four people, and a mirror that went along the whole back wall. Lastly, was the bedroom in which they were going to be able to share together. There, was a canopy king-sized bed adorned with black sheets.

“Oh my god…” Stephanie only said as she walked throughout his basically small apartment.

“Do-do you find it accommodating?”

“Pfft. Accommodating? Copia, you could have a party in here and still have room. This place is fucking massive!”

He laughed as he came up behind her and scooped her up. “Come here, beautiful.” She squealed loudly as she got picked up and as she was thrown onto the bed. He crawled on top of her pinning her down. “I think we have some business to take care of,” he said smirking at her.

“Wh-what business, Copia?” She asked blushing.

“I’m sure earlier someone said, ‘fuck me’. I think now is a great time. We are here in our room. In our bed,” He said leaning down and kissing her neck. “Now, it’s time to make you mine again,” he whispered in her ear and nibbled it.

Stephanie let out a moan as she felt herself instantly get wet. “I think that’s a good plan Copia.”

“I’m going to tickle you internally,” he said to her.

“I see nothing wrong with that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished writing this while Mary on a Cross was playing on my Spotify. I couldn't help but add a little bit of it in!


	11. Let's Get Breakfast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Copia received his new outfit and Stephanie figured that it was time to let the whole church know they are together by wearing a stellar outfit too. Drama, of course, had to follow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took so long for me to update! I had a HUGE writers block that I had to get over. I am still going to try to keep as much as possible. Since I'm now I am writing longer chapters, it will take a little longer to push out. I will continue to post two at once though! Enjoy!

Stephanie awoke the next morning feeling like she got the best sleep she has ever gotten. She stretched a little and could feel Copia’s arm draped over her. Just a couple of weeks ago, Copia asked her to move in with him and she couldn’t even imagine what would have gone through her mind if she even said no to him. She snuggled into him, just happy to be waking up next to him every morning rather than being on her own. As she snuggled into him, he stirred and brought her even closer to himself.

“Good morning, cara,” he rasped out not even opening his eyes yet.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you,” she said to him feeling guilty for wanting to snuggle into him.

“What time is it?” he asked, nuzzling into her neck.

“Hmm…it’s about six-thirty,” she said cursing internally to herself. She didn’t know it was this early and didn’t want Copia having to get up so early today. It was going to be a long day for him already and she didn’t want to make it longer.

He groaned in protest, something that was deep in his chest and brought Stephanie as tight against him as he could. “I don’t want to get out of this bed.”

“Go back to sleep, Cardinal. You don’t need to be up yet anyway.”

“Mmh…as tempting as that sounds, it would be better to get up and get ready to shake away the nerves early,” he said kissing her head. “Would you like to join me in the shower, cara?”

“When do I ever say no?” she giggled and rolled out of his grasp and off the bed and went to the bathroom to start the shower.

After their shower, Copia went to go get dressed in a different room – he said he had a surprise for her. So, Stephanie got ready in the bathroom because the mop that she called hair needed to be tamed. After drying out her hair completely and brushing it out, she decided to attempt to tie back her hair with a French braid. As she tried to remember how to do it, she heard Copia clear his throat behind her.

“So…what do you think?” He asked her.

She turned around and she was floored. “Unholy fuck,” she could all but get out. There in front of her was Copia in a new outfit. He was no longer in his cassocks, but in a suit that was skintight, all black, and wearing a jacket that started as a velvet vest with it as well. His jacket had coattails that came down to the back of his knees. His breast was adorned with his Grucifix and he wore plain black gloves. “Are…fuck…” she got out again. She was completely turned on. This outfit accented every angle of him, and it was something she could never imagine him wearing.

“I’m taking your lack of speech as you like it,” he said smoothing the front of himself and looking down at it. “I honestly didn’t think I’d like it. It’s growing on me though,” he said looking up at her and gave her a slight smile.

“C-Can you even move properly in that?” she asked. It looked so tight on him, not that she was complaining, but if this was his outfit for the night, then it might be an issue.

“Sister, if I wanted to, I could do the splits in this thing,” he said giving her a sly look and a wink.

Stephanie blushed. “Well…the girls are going to love it,” she said looking down to the floor. She knew that he couldn’t always wear his cassocks, but she felt a pang of jealousy knowing that others will be able to see him like this…like… _see_ him like this. There was little left to the imagination – especially where his crotch was.

“What do you mean?” he asked her and looked down at himself again. He walked to the mirror to see himself better and did a bit of a twirl to make sure everything was in place. Then he realized that, indeed, his package is full-on visible in this. “Oh, Satan help me,” he said blushing hard bringing his hand up to his forehead. He sighed and looked at her. He turned to Stephanie and suddenly hugged her. “Don’t you worry my sister. Even if the ladies enjoy, just always remember it’s only for you,” he said kissing the top of her head and then letting her go.

“Let me see the back,” she asked. If the other sisters and ladies are going to see him, then she wants to be the first. He turned around for her and she sucked in a gasp. “Damn, these pants are going to be the death of me,” she muttered.

“It’s not that bad is it?”

“Oh, it’s not bad at all…” she trailed at staring at his ass. “You do any sort of those damn moves you usually do; no one is going to think this outfit is bad.” At this, she smacked his ass and made him jump.

“Sister!” he exclaimed startled.

“Let’s go get something to eat Copia. I’m sure the rest of the church would love to see your new wardrobe change and see that only I am the one that can hang off your arm,” she said winking at him.

He ran a hand through his hair causing it slick back a little more and smiled. “I think you got to finish getting ready yourself. I don’t feel comfortable taking you down to the cafeteria naked,” he chuckled and winked.

Stephanie giggled. “Well, you have a point. You go do what you need to do, and I’ll finish getting ready. Then we’ll go eat.” Copia kissed her and walked to his study to do some more paperwork before the whole day began for real.

Stephanie went back to her hair and got it to cooperate enough to where she finished her fishtail braid. She walked into the bedroom and opened the closet to walk in. “I gotta think of something that is going to make us look like a bombshell couple,” she thought to herself looking through all her clothes. “Aha!” she said aloud as she took down the dress she was going to wear.

A few minutes later, she showed up at the study door. “Hey,” she said to him seductively.

Copia looked up from his work and his eyes widened at the sight in front of him. Stephanie was wearing a short strapless red dress that framed her every curve and showed enough cleavage that made him hard on the spot. Her necklace found a home right between her breasts perfectly. “Satan, help me,” he said staring at her. “Red is definitely your color,” he said as he shut his book still staring.

“You ready to go get some breakfast?” she said winking at him knowing what the dress was doing to him.

“Now you’ll have all the guys looking at you. Satan only knows what your brotherly ghouls are going to think when they see you,” he said standing up from his desk walking over to her.

“Ha! They can look, but they all know I’m only yours,” she said using his words against him. “Anyway, you might wanna get rid of that before we go. The sisters are going to look even more if you walk around with a rager,” she snickered patting his erection.

Copia rolled his eyes, jumping a little at her touching him, and kissed her deeply. He then realized that he had to look up a bit more than normal at her. That’s when it hit him that she was wearing heels – the same heels she swore that she would love to burn or bury. “Sister, if I may,” he started as he wrapped his hands on her waist, “I couldn’t help but notice that you are a bit taller than I remember,” he said smiling.

She sighed. “So, first, I stop wearing them and you comment on my height and then I wear them _one_ time and you are going to comment on my height again? Wow, Copia. Sounds like you have a death wish,” she chuckled.

“If I had a death wish, I’d tell Imperator that her new outfit that she has makes her look like an old used goat, not basically pose the question of why you are wearing heels,” he said back.

Stephanie laughed. “Alright, you are right. I just figured they would go better with this outfit than my old flats or boots. Judging by the way you look at me, they are doing just fine,” she said kissing him. “Now, let's go before I get hangry,” she chuckled.

“You know, we walk out that door, we are announcing to the whole church that we are together. I know we told the people we are close to and see almost daily, but now the whole church will know.” Copia said sounding a bit anxious.

“I know.”

“People are going to stare.”

“I don’t care. Let them. If anyone says anything, who cares. I love you Copia.” Stephanie said smiling.

“I love you, cara mia. Let us go.” He said offering his arm to her. “And may Satan look over us as we descend to the unknown.”

“Stop being so dramatic. It’s only breakfast. The rest of the day is what you have to worry about,” she said. “Especially tonight.”

Copia gulped. “Ye-Yeah…tonight…heh…”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As they walked to the cafeteria, they were greeted with stares, faces of awe, and whispers. Copia tried very hard to not let his nervous tick get in the way of leading his beautiful woman down to breakfast. He side-glanced at her and saw that her free hand was twirling her necklace – her nervous tick. He smiled inwardly at how similar they are in that aspect, yet they were so different. She could be anxious or nervous, but she could still speak her mind. Himself on the other hand, well, he stumbled, stuttered, and even sometimes forgot to speak English and only spoke in Italian.

As they neared the cafeteria, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the ghouls he has come to know so well laughing and talking amongst themselves. As soon as they all caught a glance at them, they all stopped and stared at them.

Dew whistled at Stephanie, “Damn girl! Get it!” This made Stephanie blush a red that was close to her dress.

“Let’s go see them shall we?” Copia asked her.

“Okay,” she said gripping her necklace a little tighter. She didn’t know why she was nervous to talk to the ghouls she sees as brothers. She loves these guys like family and can tell them everything. It’s probably due to the whole stop and stare game everyone played on their way down.

“Wow, you guys look like you are going to a fancy dinner,” Aether said as they got close and brought Stephanie into a hug. “You look beautiful as always though Steph.”

Stephanie hugged him back and blushed again, “Aww Aether. You are too sweet.”

“Hey Cardinal, is that what you are wearing tonight?” Swiss asked.

“Y-Yeah. Uh, do you think it’s too much?” He stuttered.

The ghouls laughed. “Dude, did you even see what the third wore most of the time? You are vanilla compared to him,” Dew joked.

“People will love it over your cassocks anyway,” Swiss said with Mountain nodding his head in agreement.

“Y-you think so? Better than The Third? Heh…well…uh…”

“Yo, Cardinal, relax man. You’re going to do just fine,” Dew sad gripping his shoulder. “If it’s anything like you have been doing with us, tonight is going to be lit.”

“Ugh…” Aether sighed pinching the bridge of his nose - well what would be a nose if he wasn't wearing his mask. “What I think Dew here is trying to say is that just be yourself. Not your anxious self. Just yourself. You are going to do great tonight Cardinal.”

“Yeah, just in a less ‘I’m an old guy’ lingo,” Dew snickered using air quotes.

“Do you enjoy getting punched?” Aether snapped at him.

“Well, before we get caught in this crossfire, we are going to head to breakfast. See you guys later!” Stephanie said and pulled Copia with her. As they walked away, they could hear the two ghouls bickering.

“I swear they never get along…” Copia mumbled.

“Oh, they do. It’s just a rare occasion. Like so rare, those encounters belong in a zoo,” Stephanie giggled.

They reached the cafeteria and were met with loud conversations and other ghouls, sisters of sin, and brothers of sin all mingling and laughing. They got a couple of steps in when it suddenly went quiet and all eyes were on them. Copia froze causing Stephanie to stop suddenly too.

“Copia, darling, if we stay right here, they are all going to bombard us,” she whispered so only he could hear.

He found the courage to keep moving and found an empty table in the back of the room. Perfect. He rushed them over to it and pulled Stephanie’s chair out for her before taking his own seat. People were still staring, and the awkward silence turned into people whispering. “Cara, I’m not sure if my nerves can handle this,” he whispered to her.

“Let’s just get food, eat, and then get out of here. I’m getting uncomfortable myself,” said eyeing the room. She could see many sisters, most of them being ones she used to be friends with, look at her in awe while others looked like they were pissed. “Heh, looks like some of my old friends are jealous Cardinal,” she said as she formulated an evil an idea to make them even more jealous. “Kiss me,” she said looking at him.

“K-kiss you? H-Here…in…in front…ah…”

“Come on, just one. That’s all. I wanna make them see that you are mine,” she winked and reached for his hands. “Come on, quit with the squeaks, and hold my hands.”

He let go of his hands and gladly held hers. Whenever he touched her, it seemed like his nerves were quenched. Just like magic, he felt better immediately. He saw the sisters she was talking about go from pissed to very pissed as he did so. “Come here, cara,” he said and leaned over the table and kissed her.

She was expecting a quick peck – a one and done kind of deal. She completely forgot that Copia felt the most comfortable when staying inside their little bubble. This kiss was deep, and he even slipped her some tongue. After this kiss, she was super red in the face. She wasn’t embarrassed that he decided to kiss her like that in front of everyone. She was just already dealing with her hormones with him in his new outfit and that kiss just added on to it.

“That should make them very jealous,” she murmured as she gripped his hands tighter.

“I’m glad to be of service, cara,” he smiled at her and kissed her hands. He looked up behind her to see another sister coming towards them. “Uhm…it looks like we are about to have some company."

Stephanie turned around and saw one of her oldest friends coming to them. “Ah, Sister Gabriel. Long time no see,” she said still feeling the heat in her cheeks - and between her legs.

“Yeah, seems so,” the sister said crossing her arms. “So, how have you been Steph?”

“Been doing pretty good, thanks for asking. How about you?”

“Well. After our, falling out, I was doing pretty good. Getting fucked whenever I wanted, getting anything I wanted, and getting the work that I wanted. That ended very recently…” she trailed off sadly.

So, the rumors of her and The Third must have been true. “Hmm...I’m sorry to hear that sister. I can imagine how, difficult, it can be to have something and then the next day not.”

“Yeah…” the sister said looking like she was about to burst into tears. “Uhm, so, I see that you and the Cardinal here are, ya know, a thing?”

“Yes, we are,” Stephanie said glancing back to Copia smiling. “What does that matter to you anyway?” she said looking back at her fellow sister.

“Steph. I’m just…I’m wondering…” she trailed off and then lowered her voice to a whisper, “does the Dark Lord know? Because of your…well…your whole necklace thing…”

Stephanie looked at her bewildered. “Yes, the Dark Lord knows,” she said sternly. “I am not one to hide from Him.”

The sister looked at her like she was just punched in the face. Copia started getting the feeling that there were still some old hurt feelings under all of this. “Ah, Sister…Gabriel was it? What my lovely lady here is trying to convey is that the Dark Lord knows because I was the one for her. Just look at her necklace. I am hers and she is mine. I don’t know why you are so interested in our relationship, but if there is something that you are trying to pull, just remember who I am,” he said authoritatively.

Stephanie looked at Copia in shock. Damn, he just stood up for her without stumbling, fidgeting, or even turning anxious. Satan below, she loved this man.

“Ah, yes Cardinal. I…I do know. Uhm, no I was not coming over here out of spite. I…” she sighed and closed her eyes while taking a deep breath in and out, “Stephanie, I want to apologize. I really do. I-I’m sorry for all the hurt I caused.”

“Sister, I wish I could forgive you, but I cannot. You did more than hurt me. You left me alone. You decided that if you were to no longer be with me, you could get what you want. You told me I ruined your reputation just because I decided to do what the Dark Lord wanted, and you wanted to go behind His back. I cannot help but think that this sudden change of heart is only because you see me here with the Cardinal, and you want to get on his good side before I show him your bad one.” Stephanie rose out of her chair and went to Copia. “Come on Cardinal. I have suddenly lost my appetite.”

Copia rose as well, realizing that this is her scapegoat. He knew she was hungry still – he will make her something back in his room. This sister seems to have really hurt her and even defied the Dark Lord somehow. He himself did not want anything to do with this. He looped his arm in with hers and they both left the cafeteria, leaving Sister Gabriel behind looking like she got hit by a ton of bricks.


	12. The Ritual

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tonight is the first ritual and Copia has a surprise for Stephanie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I have gone back and updated some of the Italian in the chapter**

Back in their room, Stephanie barely made it to the couch before she started crying. She wasn’t sad – she was frustrated and pissed off. Why did she have to come and open her damn mouth to her? She couldn’t have just left her alone could she? She sat down and buried her face in her hands and cried her tears of frustration.

Copia sat next to her and wrapped his arm around her consoling her. He understands fully what she is going through. In his past, so many people didn’t want to be around him. They called him names, said he wasn’t great at anything and was even just physically bullied. That sister had no right coming up to her trying to get back on her good side all of a sudden. Stephanie is probably right in thinking she was just trying to make sure he didn’t know the bad things.

Stephanie started to calm herself down. Sister Gabriel was not someone she wanted to cry over anymore. That was in her past and she didn’t want to live in that anymore. She looked up from her hands and looked at Copia beside her. He was there right where she needed him – with her and helping her through her time of trouble. He even spoke up for her without fear. “I love you,” she said smiling at him, some tears still coming down her face.

Copia wiped some away with his thumb as he cupped her face. “I love you, cara,” he said smiling back at her. “Whatever happens, I will always be there for you,” he said as he leaned over and kissed the top of her head.

She smiled even wider. “Thank you,” is all she said and hugged him. “Thank you for sticking up for me too.”

“Anything for you,” he said hugging her back. He heard her stomach growl at that moment and laughed. “You want me to make you something to eat, cara?”

“Oh, my goodness yes. I’m so lucky to have a man that can cook. I can barely make grilled cheese,” she giggled covering her mouth. “For all I know, I even do that wrong.”

Copia petted her head and got up to go to the kitchen. “I’ll make your favorite,” he said as he went to work. “You need a pick me up.”

“You know me so well.” Her favorite – a _very_ cheesy and bacon omelet.

“And you know me so well too,” he called over his shoulder.

Stephanie got up from the couch and walked over to the counter. She loved watching him work – whether that work is making food, writing, doing paperwork, singing, or just reading. He always got a glimmer in his eyes that was his tell of him enjoying what he was doing.

“Are you going to come with me tonight?” he asked suddenly snapping her out of her thoughts.

“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it,” she said.

“Good. I have a surprise for you.”

“Oh? Well, then I have two things to look forward to tonight.”

“Can I make it three?” He said looking over his shoulder at her slyly. Confused, Stephanie just looked at him with an arched eyebrow. “I have to celebrate tonight with you somehow,” he said winking at her.

She blushed a deep red again. “Alright, Copia. Three. Three things to look forward to tonight.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When it hit two o’clock, everyone headed towards the airport – Stephanie, Copia, the ghouls, and many other brothers and sisters that help. When they got there, they all got on their private plane and made their way to Germany.

The ghouls and Copia went to the back of the plane to have their meeting about what is going to go down. Stephanie stayed upfront with the other brothers and sisters because she wanted the whole night to be a surprise to her. She was so excited she was basically jumping out of her seat with joy. “I finally get to see another concert,” she thought to herself. “I haven’t seen one since…well since The Third was kidnapped off stage.” She knew it was going to go well. The fans were going to fall in love with him and accept him as the lead.

She at least knew one song was going to be on the setlist – _Cirice._ There always needs to be some girl that’ll be ciriced at every show. It’s a tradition that The Third started and she knew Copia didn’t want to break that. She just didn’t know what else they were going to do. This is the first night that they were going to play songs from the new album, and she hasn’t even heard them all yet.

Copia came back and plopped down in the seat next to her. “Hey, gorgeous. You look like you are about to shed your skin from excitement,” he said laughing.

“Hey yourself,” she said smiling. “I’m super pumped. I cannot wait to hear you give all those people tonight the best show of their lives.”

“Best? I think you are a little biased.”

“I might be. I don’t care. You are going to do great.” She placed a hand on his leg and squeezed. “This outfit is going to help a lot too,” she said smirking. “There’s a part of me that wants to take you in the back and rip it off of you yet the other part of me wants to wait to just rip it off later in our bed,” she seductively whispered to him licking her top lip.

Copia snatched up her hand quickly. “Not here sister. I-I show too much these pants…” he said blushing and embarrassed.

Stephanie laughed and kissed him. “Don’t worry. I’ll behave now.”

“You? Behave? Doubtful.”

Just before Stephanie could banter back, the pilot came over the loudspeaker letting everyone know to get settled because they were about to land.

Stephanie noticed that he was wringing his hands together again. “Nervous?”

“Honestly, no,” he said still wringing his hands. “I’m…I’m excited. I get to share my music. I get to share our beliefs. I get to be there with the woman I love. Even if it’s not directly on stage, I know you’ll be there looking, watching, and singing along,” he said smiling and took one of her hands into his. “I’m just as pumped as you are.”

Stephanie smiled widely, “Glad you are more than ready to be yourself out there tonight.”

“Me too.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stephanie gave him a kiss as he went off to get ready for the ritual. She decided that she was going to watch as an audience member tonight – but still of course in the front row. She stopped by a merch stand and picked up a couple of shirts for her collection and one for her to wear for the night. She went to the bathroom and changed into her ritual attire that she usually wears.

Black skinny jeans, her new t-shirt, a beanie, and her black knee-high boots now adorned, she went to the mirror. Usually, she tries to blend in with the rest of the crowd by wearing makeup as everyone else does. Most of the crowd wears face paint that resembles their favorite Papa and she used to do the same for The Third. Tonight though, she made her face paint the same as her Cardinal’s. It, of course, wasn’t much since he isn’t a Papa, but she didn’t care.

As she exited the bathroom, she ran into another gal trying to go in. “Satanas, mio. I’m so sorry.” She said as she then notices who it is – Imperator. “Ah, uhm, Sister Imperator. What a pleasant surprise. I didn’t know you were attending tonight.”

“I would be a terrible person if I didn’t see our Cardinal perform tonight,” she huffed. “I see that you are intending to be in the audience tonight Sister,” she said looking Stephanie up and down.

“Uh…yes. Yes, I am Sister.” She said feeling her nerves start getting to her.

“Enjoy the ritual then Sister,” she said as she began to brush past her, “oh, and make sure you thank Him for this wonderful night.”

“Of course Sister,” she said basically running out of the bathroom towards the stage.

The crowd was already beginning to form outside the arena, and she wanted her normal spot. As she entered the main area, she showed her badge to security and set up shop right in her normal spot. Right in fucking front and she’s not giving it up.

People began to funnel in left and right. They were of all ages and even some adorned in new merch too. Some people she saw in complete cosplays of Papal robes and meters, and even a couple people wearing her Cardinal’s Grucifix. Many people even went as far as finding a white contact for their eye to try and match the iconic white eye that all the brothers and Copia have. She couldn’t help but laugh at all the excitement that oozed off all the people coming in. The aura was amazing, and she missed this feeling. Soon, she was surrounded by many people, some trying to fight for her spot which she, of course, told them no it’s hers. It was coming at almost eight o’clock and she knew soon everything was going to start. She closed her eyes and silently prayed to the Dark Lord to make tonight a great success and to allow her Cardinal to perform perfectly. She thanked Him for this wonderful ritual they were about to put on, and she again thanked Him for her Cardinal. Just as she said Nema, the lights darkened and the intro that she has come to know as _Ashes_ began and the crowd went wild.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stephanie could barely believe what she was hearing. “This is so much better in ritual than in practice sessions!” She exclaimed to herself as they played _Rats_. Copia played the crowd greatly and pranced around the stage like it was his domain. He had great chemistry with the ghouls on stage too which caused the crowd to go nuts. After _Rats_ Copia talked to the crowd, asked how they were all doing, acted like his normal horny ass self, and then continued with the rest of the ritual. The songs that the band played following _Rats_ were _Year Zero_ , _Cirice_ which was the obvious one, _He Is_ which made her happy as fuck, _Miasma_ which had Papa Nihil playing the saxophone (this was something she didn’t expect but thoroughly enjoyed), _Dance Macabre_ another favorite song of her off the new album, _Mummy Dust_ with Copia being really fucking weird and asking the crowd if they want their asses wobbled and their taints tickled, _Faith_ , _Ritual, Absolution_ which was that one song that made her heart and soul sing, and _Jigolo Har Meggido_.

All of these she knew by heart while the rest of the crowd didn’t know some since they came off the new album and they haven’t heard any except for _Rats_ and a little bit of _Miasma_ from the _Dance Macabre_ music videos that were released. Watching the crowd learn these songs quickly and still love them and sing along with him made her heart leap with joy. She was just so happy her Cardinal was being praised as he should be. Of course, he got into it a lot and acted like a horny ass even more on stage which made the girls in the audience swoon for him. She knew that it was just him being himself and she got a kick out of it – especially when swayed his hips and then showed off his ass to the crowd. She still couldn’t help but think if he had spotted her there in the front or not. If he had, he gave no showing of it to her even if it was only subtle enough for her to know.

At the end of those songs, Copia wound at the top of the stage next to the ghoulettes. He thanked the crowd for coming to the ritual tonight, said that he was glad that they accepted him and that they had one last song for the crowd. He began shushing the crowd until they were relatively quiet except for the occasional fangirl screaming, “fuck me Cardinal!”

As he shushed them, he walked up to the front right in front of her. “Alright. Now. You guys will have to stay quiet for this one. You think you can do that?” He asked and the crowd just screamed in unison back. “No, no, no. Quiet. Not loud. Shhhhh,” He said while waving his hands downward. The crowd became quiet again. “Good, yes. This song, you see, is a one really fucking special song. So fucking special, no one but us up here have heard it.”

Stephanie beamed with excitement. A song that she hasn’t even heard. She was shaking so much at the adrenaline she had, and the aura of the crowd didn’t even help – she didn’t care though. She fucking loved this feeling.

“This song. I say it is special because, well, it is for someone who falls close to me,” he said patting his chest. The crowd busted out in aww’s and Copia smiled and looked down and winked directly as Stephanie and looking back up to the rest of the crowd quickly.

Her heart leaped into her throat. A song for her? Is this what he’s been working on without her? As she was wondering these things, the whole arena went pitch black.

“Can you hear me say your name forever? Can you see me longing for you forever? Would you let me touch your soul forever? Can you see me longing for you forever, forever?” Copia sang out still not being seen. Stephanie’s eyes immediately gained tears, it was a ballad and it was beautiful.

The next line started with a light shining on Copia at the top of the stage again. Soon the lights turned purple and showed the whole rest of the band as the rest of them started playing with the song. The chorus started up again and the crowd began lighting up their phones swaying them along with the song.

The song picked up a bit and Copia started walking down the stairs slowly as the ghouls and ghoulettes sang. Just as the song began to slow again and come to its ending, Copia made it to the front of the stage and knelt at the edge and held out his hand to Stephanie. “If you had life eternal.” He sang as he took her hand into his and the room went black again.

She felt him squeeze her hand and let go. Soon all the lights came on, bright white. The crowd got super loud and were chanting “Ghost!” as he stood there blowing kisses out to them – some still having tears from that very gorgeous song.

“Thank you, Hannover!” He belted out as the ghouls threw out some random riff. “How ‘bout one more fucking song?!” The crowd cheered. Copia shook his head, “Tsk. Tsk. I don’t know. That wasn’t convincing enough. I think we might just go,” he said shrugging as the crowd got louder screaming “one more!” repeatedly.

“Okie Dokie,” he said and ran back up the steps as the ghouls started into the beginning riff for _Square Hammer_ \- the crowd went wild as one of the most popular songs that The Third made was played.

At the end, he said thank you to the crowd again and bowed. Then it went dark again and the music came to a halt.

Stephanie hated this part. It’s musical and wonderful during the ritual and at the end, that feeling of euphoria is still there, but the music that caused that feeling is no longer there. As the crowd filed out, she stood in her spot and waited. She was just going to climb onto the stage like she normally did to go join them in the back. As most of the crowd was already out of the arena, she tried to do just that, but security stopped her thinking she was just some crazy-ass fan.

“No, you don’t understand! I’m with Ghost! Look, I have my badge!” She cried out as they grabbed onto her as she tried to climb up. They ignored her, picked her up, and sat her back into the pit where she was previously. With a huff, she whipped out her badge and shoved it into the rude security officer’s face. “See. Ghost lets me do this so I don’t have to go through the whole crowd to get back to the back. Just let me go!” She basically yelled.

“Look girly. I don’t know you. How am I to know that that badge is even real? Get out of here before I have to throw you out.”

By this point, the whole place was already cleared out. She wasn’t giving up though. How dare this douche bag. “Geeze dude. What part of ‘I’m with them’ can you not comprehend?” She said crossing her arms and dug her heels into the floor.

“Again, I don’t know you nor can you prove this is true. Don’t make me call for backup girly,” he threatened.

She knew she couldn’t just run and make it up and backstage without this douche catching up to her and she knew that if she just stood here to make her point more guys like him are going to show up and that’s not good either. She started running through ideas in her head quickly until she saw him peek his head out from the corner of the stage looking concerned – eyes darting everywhere probably making sure no one was in the arena to maul him down.

He saw her standing there being confronted by this guy who was twice her size. He was worried that she hadn’t made it back yet since he was told by the ghouls she usually just climbs up and comes back from the front of the stage - it looks like there was a snag in her plan.

“Ahem,” he said loud enough just so they could hear them. “Excuse me, but you are holding up my woman.”

The security guard snapped his head back and saw Copia there staring at him and then whipped it back and looked at Stephanie. He sighed and stepped back. “As you were ma’am.”

“Damn right,” she said as she walked by him bumping into him on purpose and climbed up on the stage. She got up and briskly walked over to Copia. “Hey, you.”

He grabbed her hand and brought her out of sight quickly. “Come on. I have a meet and greet I need to do,” he said rushing her. “I was worried about you when you didn’t show up as quickly as I thought you would.” He brought her quickly to where the rest of the band waited. “Seems like that security guy wasn’t letting you go huh?” He asked as they reached the band members.

“Yeah, and the douche bag kept calling me girly. Satan below, I was about to make him into a girl if he called me that one more time,” she said pissed.

“I bet you would have,” he said cupping her face and rubbing his thumb across her cheek. He gave her a quick kiss. “I’ll be back, amore mio,” and he was gone with the rest of the band.

She was left there by herself waiting. She has never waited for a meet and greet to be over before. She was usually on the bus with the rest of the crew heading back to the hotel they would stay at or even just back to the airport to get back on a plane as the band did their thing. These could last for hours. “Ugh,” she said aloud and really wished she just brought her phone like she was planning on doing. So, she just stood there, clutching all her new merch she bought beforehand – left to her own mind to wander.

“I can’t believe he wrote that song without me even finding out…” she finally said aloud after what felt like an hour went by. She started humming it, already having it memorized – it looks like she can count this one as her new favorite. _He Is_ is still an amazing song, but damn. This one just puts the icing on the cake. Over and over, she hummed the song with tears welting in her eyes. She found a place to comfortably sit since her feet were killing her, leaned her head up against the wall, closed her eyes, and began singing it out loud to herself. Unbeknownst to her, Copia returned from his meet and greet.

He found her there sitting against a wall and singing the song he wrote specifically using his feelings for her. This was the first time he had heard her sing on her own – it was beautiful. He walked over to her quiet enough so she didn’t hear him and that he could continue to hear her sing. This was now his second favorite sound in the world – the first being him hearing her cry out his name in pleasure.

He squatted in front of her as she sang each lyric perfectly as if she wrote it herself. She was so beautiful, and her voice just accompanied that beauty. Just as she reached that last line, he decided to sing it with her.

She snapped her eyes open and saw him there, crouched in front of her smiling – his eyes glistening in the darkness. Embarrassed, she blushed red. “H-hey,” she stammered out. “How, uh, how long have you been there?”

“Hmm..about the whole second repeat of that chorus forward,” he said grabbing her hands, standing, and helping her off the floor.

“Satanas mio,” she muttered blushing even deeper and looking down.

He giggled a little at her picking up his own speech and language patterns. He then tilted her face back up to his with a finger and kissed her deeply. “You sing like an angel,” he whispered on her lips, “and I’m assuming quite heavily that you liked the song,” he said smiling and kissed her again.

“Y-yes. I do. A lot. Th-Thank you Copia. It has a lot of meaning and I can feel what you feel with each word,” she said stammering out while tears of joy ran down her face.

Copia wiped some of them away, “Let’s go. If we stay here for too long, Dew is going to convince the plane to take off without us.”

Stephanie laughed. “He would too, that shit.”

Copia took her hand, holding it tight and lead her out through the back towards their own car.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With his arm slung over her shoulder, and his one leg propped up on the other one, he leaned his head against hers and nuzzled. “So how do you think tonight went?”

“Are you kidding me? I think you already know.”

“Yeah, I guess you are right. They loved it.”

“They also liked you whoring around too,” she said placing her hand on his knee.

“Too much?”

“Nah. The Third did worse honestly,” she said smiling. “I’m really just glad you were still yourself. You can be goofy yet turn around and be your horny ass self – it’s calming to know that being up there on that stage doesn’t change that about you.”

Copia chuckled and took his hand that was wrapped around her and squeezed her breast. She squeaked in response and he chuckled again smiling. “By the way, nice shirt collection,” he said waving his hand toward her bag full of shirts.

“Hey, just because you are mine doesn’t mean my collection of Ghost shirts are going to stop increasing,” she chortled and gripped his knee harder.

“That’s fine as long as you remember one thing,” he said fully looking at her.

She turned her head to see him staring at her hungrily. “And what’s that Cardinal?” She asked slyly and biting her bottom lip.

His free hand snuck up her shirt and grasped her other breast causing her to gasp. “This one you are wearing is going to end up on our floor,” he said whispering into her ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All lyrics do not belong to me. The songs do not belong to me. All things belong to Tobias and the band Ghost. Thanks
> 
> **Edit** A special thank you to one of my readers DandyRatBastard!  
> They were able to help me with fixing my Italian mistakes in this chapter! Thank you so much and I hope I don't scar you too much with the amount of Google Translate I have to do since my Italian is *rusty*


	13. Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie has a horrible nightmare and wakes up to have Copia helping her calm down. This leads to something a little more than she expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are a lot more Italian words in here! If I have any of it wrong please let me know and I will make the edits! Also SMUT ALERT AND SOME MINOR BLOOD/GORE!!!!! If you are weak to that sort of thing please skip everything past the first break!!!  
> Thanks! <3

When they got back to the church, they rushed towards their room, giddy like schoolgirls. It was late, and you could only hear the pats their feet made as they hastily made their way through the halls. As they went down the last corridor, they slowed down as they saw someone was unexpectedly waiting for them outside – Sister Imperator.

“About time Cardinal,” she huffed. “Sister, don’t you think you should be going to your room. It is past curfew,” she said snapping at Stephanie.

Shit. She didn’t know yet? They thought the whole fucking place knew they were living in the same room together by now. “Uhm, Sister, I-I, uh..” Stephanie stammered.

“Out with it Sister. I do not have all night.”

“I-I moved in here with Copia.”

Imperator glared at Stephanie, her eyes becoming almost just slits. She crossed her arms still staring at her and let out a frustrated huff. “When were you going to mention this to me Sister?”

“I…I honestly thought everyone knew including you, Sister,” she said, her nervousness making her feel like she was about to shimmy out of her skin. She fiddled with her necklace and looked down at the floor.

“Jesus…” Imperator mumbled. “Fine. Whatever. Cardinal? May I speak with you inside then?”

“T-tonight Sister? Is it that important?”

Imperator rolled her eyes. “Yes. You can resume your celebratory fuck-fest after I am done,” she said as she stepped aside unfurling her fingers towards the door.

Copia opened the door and let Imperator walk in before them. She went into the lounge and immediately made herself at home in one of the chairs. Copia stole a glance at Stephanie and went and sat on the couch opposite her.

“I’ll, uh, go and get ready for bed then,” Stephanie feeling very unwelcome in this situation.

“No, vieni a sederti cara,” said to her which made her immediately come and sit by his side. This made him inwardly smile – she understood him. She’s learning.

Imperator took her face into her hand and sighed again. “Okay, I guess we can all be here for this,” she said and lifted her head out of her hand. “Cardinal. Tonight, was a success. Your choice of releasing the album immediately after the ritual was a stroke of genius. We sold out in minutes.”

Copia’s eyes lit up in delight. “Really?”

Sister hummed in response. “We also ran out of almost the merchandise we had there as well. That is something that not even The Third did on his first night,” she said smiling slightly.

Stephanie couldn’t help but smile and squeeze Copia’s thigh. “See? I told you it was going to go great Cardinal!”

“Yes. Yes, it did. You, uh, what do they call it nowadays? Swooned the crowd? Gah, what a horrible word…” Imperator trailed off. “Your little stunt at the very end won them over it seems as well,” she said as she began to stare Stephanie down. Stephanie swallowed hard enough you could see her throat bob. “I hope you plan on continuing to have that song on your list more than once this tour Cardinal. Even if it’s not meant for…the crowd…” she said as she continuously stared at Stephanie.

“Mi scusi,” Copia said, “I feel that no matter what, or whom,” he said side glancing at Stephanie, “it was for, the song is a good one and everyone enjoyed it.”

Imperator clicked her tongue and sucked in a breath through her teeth quickly. “Yes, it does seem so,” she said looking back at Copia. “I guess I’ll leave it at that. I’ll see myself out,” she said standing and Copia and Stephanie stood as she did. “Just remember Cardinal. Many great things are going to be coming your way,” she said winking, and she walked towards the door. “Oh, and Sister?” she called out turning around and looking at her. “Did you do what I asked of you?”

“Yes, Sister.”

She hummed again. “Good. I’m glad you enjoyed yourself in the audience Sister – even if that security guard got in your way,” she said flatly and made her way out the door. As her footsteps slowly fell silent, Stephanie let out a breath that she didn’t realize she was holding in.

“Satan below, I swear Imperator needs to get laid or something to get that stick out of her ass.”

Copia chuckled. “Sono d'accordo,” he said hugging her from behind.

“You must be tired Copia. You only speak this much Italian with me when you are,” she pointed out as she brought her hands to Copia’s to hold them.

Copia leaned into the top of her head and let out a slow breath through his nose. “You know me so well. It’s heartwarming to know you can begin to understand me more and more,” he said gripping her tightly.

“You wanna take a rain check on our…oh what did Imperator call it? Our fuck fest?”

Copia laughed through his nose. “I think sleep sounds amazing, cara.”

“Let’s go to bed then.”

“Sì, lascia.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, Stephanie awoke to an empty bed. She sat up and stretched out all her limbs wondering where her Cardinal had gone off to. She got up and put on a very large Ghost hoodie and shuffled out of the bedroom. It was super cold in their whole room almost like death himself was among them freezing the air. She searched in all the rooms within and could not find Copia still. She decided to throw on some more suitable clothes and go to his office. That’s the last place he would be.

She shuffled down the hallways towards the elevator to go down to the third floor to where his office was. She was still shivering. “Damn why is it so fucking cold in here?” she mumbled to herself swearing she could see her breath. She pressed the elevator down button and waited for it to come – it didn’t. “Ugh…did this fucking thing break down again?” she said smashing the button again and listened for the sound of the elevator. What after felt like more than a couple of minutes, she gave up and made her way to the stairs. She needed a little more exercise in her life anyway outside of her riding her Cardinal she thought smirking.

She made her way down the even more cold stairwell to the floor below. As she opened the door, it seemed like all the lights were out. Maybe this is why the elevator wasn’t working? She made it to Copia’s office and tried to open the door, but it was locked. “That’s weird,” she thought to herself. He has never locked this door before. So, she rapped her knuckles against the door and it opened up wide for her. She was getting really confused and something in her gut told her to run and to run far away. The hairs on the back of her neck flared up, but she decided to ignore them and go in. “Cardinal?” she called out into the room with no answer.

A couple of steps in, she saw a dark figure standing there at his desk, their back towards her. “Copia?” she called out to the figure with a raspy voice.

The figure turned around and she stopped in her tracks looking at the figure wide-eyed. “P-Papa?” She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “Papa how are you here?” she asked taking a few steps back from The Third standing in front of her. She glanced down and saw a knife in his hand that was dripping red.

“Sister,” he sang with his arms stretching out wide, “how wonderful it is to see you again.”

“Y-you…I thought…”

“Shh…” he said bringing a finger to his lips. “You don’t want to wake your Cardinal, now would you?”

Her eyes widened and immediately ran past Papa basically shoving him out of the way. Then she saw him, on the floor behind his desk – a pool of red around him. He laid there lifeless his eyes staring into nothingness.

She flung herself to the floor to coddle him to her and sobbed. “Copia! No! Oh, my Copia!” she cried out hugging his body to her – not caring that she was getting his blood all over her. She snapped her head towards the Papa she once looked up to and the one she mourned. “Why?” She cried sniffling. The Third just stood there and grinned at her and didn’t say a word. “WHY?!” She cried out and went to bring her Cardinal back to her, but he was gone, and, in his place, she saw herself.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shrieking loudly, Stephanie awoke from her nightmare crying. Copia shot up from his slumber as he heard her blood-curdling scream. “Oh, thank Satan below!” she cried out and hugged him tightly and sobbing disgustingly.

“What happened, cara?” he grunted out as Stephanie squeezed him tightly. She couldn’t respond to him though. All she could do right now was hold him in her arms and cry thanking the Lord Below that it was just a nightmare.

“Shh..cara, it was just a dream,” Copia said rubbing her back trying to calm her down.

“No! It wasn’t just a dream!” She cried even heavier, clutching onto him tighter.

Copia petted down her hair and giving her little pecks to the top of her head trying to soothe her. “Va bene bello. Ti ho preso,” he said softly. After a few moments of ugly crying into Copia’s chest, Stephanie began to calm down. “Si. That’s it. It’s going to be all okay,” he basically whispered. Sniffling, Stephanie let go of her Cardinal slowly, her hands aching from clutching onto him so tightly. “That’s right, cara. Are you able to tell your Cardinal what this dream was that got you so bothered?”

Stephanie wiped away her tears that were still on her face as Copia grabbed a tissue so she could blow her nose. “Well…” Stephanie said trailing off a little bit before telling Copia everything. From waking up alone, how cold everything was, the power being out, Papa, and about him. She paused at the end and then told him about how he turned into herself.

Copia was speechless. He didn’t even know how to handle something like that. He stared at her in awe of what she dreamed of. No wonder she was so frightened. “Steph…I’m more than feeling for you about this. I would be distraught as well. Unfortunately, I have no idea what to make of it…” he said trailing off feeling horrible for not being able to help her. He vowed he’d help her as much as he could…but this? This was out of his realm.

“It’s okay Copia. It was terrifying, but it wasn’t real. It’s got to be my brain on some sort of drug,” she said still sniffling. She looked at him, yet she could not help but not get the vision of him lifeless out of her mind which caused her to crash down again.

“Oh, Stephanie…” Copia said grabbing her and bringing her to his chest quickly.

“I’m so scared Copia! I’m so fucking scared about what this could mean!” She cried heavily into his chest, gripping his biceps. “If anything happens to you…”

“Shh, Steph, nothing is going to happen,” he said and he pushed her forward a bit and forced her to look at him. “Look. I am here. Nothing is wrong. It was a horrible nightmare of some very shitty omen. If need be, we can go ask Papa Nihil about it, but for now, you need to look at me, cara, and believe in me when I say everything is going to be okay,” he said peacefully stroking her cheek and smiling. “I love you Stephanie and I promise nothing bad is going to happen.”

Stephanie sniffed and couldn’t help smiling back at her Cardinal. “I love you, Copia.” At this, Copia tried to kiss her, but she shoved him off. “Oh, no. I’m hideous and gross right now,” she said trying to fling herself off the bed to clean up her face. Copia grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards him again.

“How many times do I have to tell you that you are beautiful no matter what?” He said to her as his eyes shone in the slight moonlight coming through the window. “Come kiss your Cardinal,” he said seductively to her, beckoning her towards him with a finger. When she still didn’t obey and continued to say she just wanted to clean her face up, Copia grabbed her waist and rolled on top of her pinning her down.

“C-Copia!” she squeaked out.

“Disobeying your Cardinal, Sister? I think that’s against the rules here don’t you think?” he said growling deep within his chest.

“Y-Yes. It is against the rule to disobey those above you, but Copia I-”  
“Sister,” he interrupted her abruptly, “you have disobeyed your Cardinal. Now, I have the authority of punishing you for doing so.” And he suddenly took up her right breast into his hand and squeezed it menacingly.

“Cardinal!” she screeched out in both shock and excitement.

“That’s right, I am your Cardinal,” he said moving up to the bead that was forming under her shirt and pinching it, “and I’m going to show you that crying is something that does not distort beauty,” he growled out as she responded with a moan. “And, I’m going to show you that if your Cardinal wants a kiss from his Sister, then she shall not run from him,” he said and licked his top lip at the little moan that escaped from her mouth.

“I-I’m sorry Copia I just-” and she was cut off by him pinching her nipple again.

“I think you mean Cardinal.”

“Yes Cardinal,” she sighed out.

“Good Sister. Continue,” he said massaging her breast and playing with her nipple that was rock hard under the thin shirt she wore.

“I just wanted to clean myself up. I did not mean to offend you Cardinal. I do not like the way I look after crying,” she said through little huffs.

Copia’s free hand ran down her whole front and stopped at her crotch. “Is that so, Sister?” he asked as he cupped her in his hand. Stephanie moaned a little louder this time and bucked her hips looking for more contact. She didn’t respond because she was too aroused by Copia doing this to her – he is never this way with her. She felt him slap her cunt hard. “Answer your Cardinal, Sister!”

“Yes, Cardinal!” she cried out in pleasure.

He gripped her tightly in both his hands causing her to cry out in pleasure even more. He leaned down to her, lips almost touching hers, and his eyes staring right into hers. He could see the need in her eyes and how she got lost staring into his. She was enjoying this far more than he thought she would. “What a dirty sinner you are, Sister,” he whispered on her lips.

“Yes, Cardinal. Only for you, my Cardinal,” she whispered back. She could feel him getting harder as he pressed it against her stomach.

“Hmm. Good,” he said bucking his hips into her to have her feel his length against her even more. He got that delicious response that he wanted of her moaning on his lips. “Have you learned your lesson, Sister?”

“Yes, Cardinal,” she basically panted.

“Kiss me.”

“Yes, Cardinal,” she said and kissed him fiercely.

He pulled away from the kiss and stared down at her. Face red, panting, eyes begging for more – she was exquisite. His next move was going to be so easy since all she wears to bed is panties and a t-shirt. He smiled at her slyly and shoved her panties out of the way, and immediately felt how wet she was for him already.

“So, wet for your Cardinal, hm?” he asked as he played with her folds. He watched as her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she sharply inhaled. She, again, didn’t answer him, so he slapped her cunt again. “Answer your Cardinal!” He growled at her loudly and gave her one more slap for emphasis.

“Ah! Yes! Oh, Satan Yes!” she cried out after each of the slaps. Her cries made his dick twitch and he felt himself get even harder.

“What a sweet girl you are Sister. Already being ready for your Cardinal,” he said going back to playing with her folds and tickling her entrance occasionally causing her to buck her hips some more.

“P-please…” she moaned out gripping the sheets around her. She was being touched torturously and she was in love with it. She was so turned on; her mind was drawing blanks except on one thing – she wanted more.

“Please what Sister?” he retorted back using his thumb to rub her small bundle of nerves.

She moaned loudly as he played with her clit, “Please give me more, my Cardinal,” she finally got out.

“Since you asked so nicely, Sister,” he said, and he sunk a finger deep into her. He felt her tense up around him as she gasped in pleasure. Her hands gripped the sheets even tighter, her knuckles turning bright white. He thrust his finger in and out of her watching her writhe under him, her breath becoming more erratic as his dick pulsated yearning to be within her.

He pulled his finger out of her quickly, making noise from how slick she was, and she whimpered from being empty. He brought his finger to his mouth and, while staring deep into her soul through her eyes of wanting, sucked her juices off. He watched her eyes widen, pupils black as night, and she inhaled through her teeth.

He backed off her which made her pout until she realized what he was doing. He lifted his hefty cock out of his underwear and stroked himself a few times to show her how ready he was for her as well. “Come here,” he said forcefully. She sat up quickly and crawled over to him and sat on her knees in front of him. He stroked down her face as he stroked himself. Her eyes darting down at his cock and then back up to his face. You could just see the lust in her eyes and her euphoria rolled off her skin like water.

“Do you like my cock Sister?” he asked as he saw her eyes dart down to it again.

“Yes Cardinal,” she said looking at his cock instead of him.  
He brought his hand to the back of her head and snatched her hair into his grip forcing her to look at him. “If you are going to continue to be so rude, Sister, I’ll just have to punish you some more,” he snarled at her forcing her down to his cock causing her to scream. He took advantage of this and pushed his severely erect cock into the back of her throat. “This will teach you to look at someone when they are talking to you,” he grunted as he began thrusting into her mouth, holding her in place with the grip he had in her hair. She started having tears run down her face, but she didn’t falter. Soon, he was able to thrust down her throat until his pelvis was hitting her face with each thrust. His grip on her hair began to tighten as his thrusts became erratic. He snapped his hips into her throat, and it tipped him over the edge, spewing his hot seed into her throat. She moaned around his cock as she felt the hot liquid drip down her throat.

When he came down from his orgasm, he pulled himself out of her mouth, but he wasn’t done with her yet.

“What a filthy sinner you are,” he said brushing his thumb over her slightly swollen lips. “Flip over,” he said releasing his hold on her hair.

Without saying a word, she flipped over for him, discarding her panties in the process. With her ass in the air, she felt exposed, but more importantly, she felt empty without him in her.

“Stay just like that, Sister,” he said, and he got up and left the room. She had the urge to sit up and find out why he left but stayed bent over for him just like he asked. Not even a couple seconds later, he returned. “Oh, what a beautiful sight,” he said as he clicked the door closed, “and what a good Sister you for listening to your Cardinal.” He made his way across the room to her, just admiring her submitting to him like this. When he got to her, he knelt behind her.

Not long after hearing Copia kneel, she felt his slick tongue on her folds. She jumped at the sudden sensation but then melted into the bed moaning. “This is your reward, Sister,” he said between licks.

“Th-thank you Cardinal,” she moaned out. His tongue found her clit and swirled and nipped at it. She was so close; she could feel the coil tightening in her belly hard. Any more of this, she would come crashing down like a tidal wave.

“Are you going to cum for me?” he asked and began sucking on her clit.

“Y-Yes!” she moaned loudly feeling herself coming so dangerously to the edge. Just before the fall, he stopped yet again. Before she could even whine, she could feel the head of his dick playing with her folds and soon sinking deep within her making her moan loudly.

Copia moaned as he sunk deeper and deeper within her tight chiasm, gripping her hips hard. As he bottomed out, he held himself there letting her walls adjust to his girth and length again. However, after this time, he didn’t slowly start-up – he pulled out and thrust back into her quick, hard, and deep.

“Oh, Jesus!” Stephanie moaned out.

“He’s not going to help you here, Sister,” he said as he thrust in and out of her quickly feeling his orgasm building back up again quickly. He slapped her ass as he pounded her making her cheeks red. After each slap, he could feel her walls constrict against his cock and she got even wetter. Reaching between them, he found her clit again and pinched it between his thumb and finger.

“Fuck, Copia!” she yelled his name.

He smacked her ass very hard, thrusting himself deep within her and stopping. “Sister, what did I say you call me?!” he growled at her smacking her ass again.

“Fuck! Cardinal!” She yelled crying out in pleasure. “Fuck me, Cardinal!”

He smacked her ass again and quickly pumped into her again. His hand left her clit and made its way to her asshole. Using her juices, he began to play with the little hole.

“C-Cardinal!” she squeaked in embarrassment and still in pleasure as he fucked her.

“I’m making you mine in all ways tonight, Sister. Do this for your Cardinal,” he said prodding his finger into her still thrusting.

She started to tear up from the embarrassment she was feeling, yet what she was more embarrassed about was how good it felt for him to be doing that to her as he fucked her from behind. So, she relaxed into it and just let herself ride the euphoria which made it painless and more pleasurable.

Soon, Copia was a whole finger deep into her ass, thrusting in and out of her alternating from his own thrusts into her. She was screaming in new noises that were now number three of the best sounds in the world. She was shaking from all the pleasure and it caused the tightness in his stomach to increase. He could feel himself thrusting into her through her ass and it was thrilling.

She was moaning so much while screaming his name, and he was in such a high state of euphoria. He dropped the domination charade he was putting on and just kept thrusting into her deeply and rapidly as she felt her walls start squeezing around his cock more and more and more erratically.

“I’m going to cum!” she screamed as he could feel her walls just completely tighten around him, gripping his cock in all the right places. He ripped his finger out of her ass and clamped his hands on both her hips. Gripping her tightly here, he was able to thrust into her even quicker and harder than before. He could feel his own rhythm become even more erratic and he pounded the living daylights out of her.

Stephanie finally toppled over the edge and cried out in such pleasure and delight as Copia fucked her through the high. Not too long after, Copia snapped his hips against her ass and came hard and deep within her. “Fuck, Stephanie,” he moaned out and he emptied himself into her.

He slumped over her as he rode the high that he was on. Breathing heavily, they wound down together, and he started planting kisses down her back. She giggled as his mustached tickled her back as he planted them. “I didn’t hurt you, did I cara?” he whispered still kissing her back and slid himself out of her.

“Not at all, Cardinal,” she said giggling as she was still being tickled slightly. “Now, please move so I don’t make a mess everywhere!” she cried out as she could feel the dam about to break within her.

Copia backed off her quickly as she ran to the bathroom to clean up. “Do you need help, cara?”

“I’ve got it, thanks!” she responded, and he just chuckled in response.


	14. Prime Mover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Copia asks Stephanie a VERY serious question

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that this chapter is a little shorter than what I said I'm going to be making them. I'm moving and it is just hard to write as much while moving. Please enjoy this chapter though!

Copia started straightening up the bed as she was in the bathroom. There was no way he was going to go back to sleep after that. “Satanas, mio,” he said to himself as he lay back into bed waiting for her to return. She was absolutely perfect, no, more than that. She was his everything.

After him finally getting that song out to her the night before, he knew what he had to finally do. When he was writing the song, he took the necessary steps to find out answers without Stephanie knowing what was going on. She made it super simple too since most of the time she wanted to leave him be while he wrote music – something about not being a good muse. That was bull shit, but it made it easy for him to ask questions and get those answers: The Clergy already accepted her, the Dark Lord chose her for him already so it was already sacred in his eyes, and, if he ever did get promoted to being Papa even after the copious amounts of fucking work he did for this place, the Clergy found her convenient enough. It’s time he stopped running from everything and fearing that someone is just going to ride on his coattails forever. No more random flings that led to absolute nothingness due to his anxiety. He only needed her.

Stephanie came back from the bathroom looking radiant – that after sex glow was a damn good look on her. “Hey, you,” she said winking at him and hopping back into bed with him.

“Hey, yourself,” he said and brought her to him to cuddle.

“That was amazing, Copia,” she said kissing his chest.

“You were amazing,” he said to her kissing the top of her head in response.

She chortled as she nuzzled into him more. “I don’t think I can go back to sleep after that.”  
“I thought the same thing,” he said chuckling and rested his head on hers. “Hey, can I ask you something?”  
“Of course!” she beamed.

“The, uh…the song I wrote. You really think it is that good, or do you think Imperator is overplaying it to make me feel better?”

“Copia. Who did you write that song for?”

“Tu, Tesoro.”

“Then who the fuck cares what Imperator thinks. I think you should only ask me what I think.”

“Hmm…yes…you are right. So, uh, what do you think?”

“Copia, I fucking memorized the song immediately. What do you think?”

“Hmm, si, si. But, what _do_ you think?”

“I’m confused.”

Copia sighed. He was horrible at this. “Cara. I wrote that song for you. Think about it and tell me your answers.”

“Okay…?” she said still slightly confused and started thinking of each line one by one. Still confused, she looked at him and had an answer even though she really didn’t know how she got one. “Yes?”

“Yes? As in you are asking me if that is the correct answer?”

“Uhm, I’m really confused…”

“Satanas mio…” he muttered and brought his hand to his face. Dragging it down he sighed. He was _really_ bad at this and saw that she looked as if she was upset at her own self for this. “I’m sorry, cara. I’m not upset at you. Just at myself. Please do not fret. What do you think the question is overall that I pose to you in this?”

“Uh, I think, you are asking me if I had a choice, and if we could live forever if I would spend it with you?”

“Si! Oh, yes! You did understand it perfectly cara!” he exclaimed smiling wide. She looked confused still. “Why do you still look like you just read Latin again for the first time?”

“I thought it was already clear that I want to be with you no matter what? That’s why I’m confused about why it is a question. I mean, I understand it is a part of the song and it makes a theme and…and…” she trailed off thinking. “Oh. My. Fuck.”

Copia smiled at her. Her mouth would normally get her in so much trouble being around a higher official like himself, but here, he just loved it more.

“Oh, my unholy fuck. Satan below. No, there is a hidden meaning within it all isn’t there?”

Copia just nodded.

“Okay. That’s it. You are a genius. I only just came up with that. I’m not sure what that message is, but you just got to know Copia, that I love you and I don’t ever want to leave you.”

“Then don’t.”

“Okay? I don’t plan on it.”

He was messing this up badly. He’s just going to use this song to help him.

“Cara, let me help. Can you hear me say your name forever?”

“Yes, I want to Copia. That’s a no brainer.”

“Good. Now, can you see me longing for you forever?”

“Of course. I don’t see you ever wanting to leave me. Unless you do?” she said looking sad.

“No, no, no! I do want to long for you forever. Just please go with this?”

“Ok, go on then,” she said still confused.

“Will you let me touch your soul forever?”

“Damn, this is one of those lines that get me really hard too. Every time you look deep into my eyes, I always feel like you are staring into my soul – especially your, uh, white one. Iconic yes? I heard people who were with Papa felt the same way. So, yes. I would more than love for you to come and touch my soul forever.”

“Okay…I didn’t know you felt that way about…well…ok…good. Hmm. Yes. Uh. So, uh, to continue. You said yes to all of that, correct?” he said nervously fiddling behind himself.

“Uh, yeah? Are you okay? You seem weirded out.”

“I’m nervous, cara,” he said still fidgeting. He took a deep breath in and then back out. “The song lyrics only have a bigger meaning right now. At the time, I was only writing them to show you how I feel and now I want to use them to see how you feel about me.”

“Well, Copia, I love them. I feel the same way. I want to be with you forever. Especially after my, ugh, horrible dream, I can say that the feeling only got stronger.”

“Bene,” he said standing up off the bed. “Come here, cara.”

She rolled off the bed too and came to him. “What the fuck is going on, Copia? You are acting really fucking strange.”

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath in, held it in for a second, and then released it. He looked at her, her face full of concern and worry, but he smiled at her. This made her smile a bit, but she still looked worried.

Slowly, he bent down on one knee in front of her and presented a ring for her. “This is the moment of just letting go, Stephanie,” he said, and she was speechless, and her eyes were super wide. Her mouth hung open as her breathing became erratic. “So, will you let me say your name forever, long for you forever, and touch your soul forever?”

“C-Copia! Th-The Clergy! They…they need…” she stammered out not believing her eyes and ears.

“I already asked. They approve.”

“What if you become Papa?”

“You’d be my Prime Mover.”

“Oh, my fucking god…” she said, and she stared at him. Her. Prime Mover? The Clergy already accepted her and obviously, the Dark Lord did to, but what the fuck. An awkward silence hung between the two and Copia became super nervous. He started to flush red.

Stephanie finally beat through everything in her head. “Yes,” she whispered tearing up.

Copia hardly heard her. “W-what?”

“Yes! Copia! Yes!” she screamed and jumped.

Copia grinned ear to ear and stood. He put the ring on her finger – an exact fit. He knew it would. He asked the Dark Lord for it. A skull ring that was a mixture of red and black just like the Grucifix they shared that shone like a diamond.

He brought her into the tightest of hugs possible, picked her up, and swung her around. Putting her down, the most passionate kiss that they have ever shared together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any and all lyrics do not belong to me.


	15. Dream Interpretation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie gets her dream interpreted while Copia is away on tour. She tells a little about her past.

Stephanie sat outside Imperator’s office waiting for her to call her in. She twiddled with the ring on her finger. She could hardly believe that he went and did this. She looked back on the day that she met him and laughed about how pissed off she was that she had to show him off and that she was immediately thrown into working with him. Even then, she realized that he was looking at her almost constantly and she just thought he was being weird or awkward. Now she wondered if he did that because he literally just could not help but keep his eyes off of her – some invisible force that pulled him to her immediately.

Before she could think any further, she heard yelling coming from inside Imperator’s office which was followed by a Sister running out of the office crying. Imperator showed up at the door and looked at Stephanie and beckoned her inside. Stephanie followed her inside and waited for her to sit before she did. She crossed her legs and waited for her to speak.

“Sister, what brings you here today?”

“Sister, thank you for seeing me. I am wishing to speak to you and Papa about a dream, well, rather a nightmare that I had a couple of weeks ago.”

“A dream Sister? Do I look like I’m an interpreter of silly games our minds play on us?”

“No Sister. Forgive me, but that is not what I am asking of you today. I am just wondering if I may gain some time with you and Papa to tell you what happened and see if it was an omen of something horrible to come.”

Imperator sat back in her chair and folded her hands on her desk. “Papa is very busy these days, Sister. Why can you not ask the Cardinal for advice since you two are…very acquainted?” she asked with her looking sick as she finished her question.

“I cannot ask him for this advice. I awoke from the nightmare with him next to me and he could not make heads or tails of it. This is why I am requesting time from both you and Papa to go over it. It is…bothersome and disquieting if I could describe it,” Stephanie said trying to not think over all the details of her dream at that moment.

Imperator closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath in and slowly let it out through her nose. “Alright Sister. I will see when Papa is available. I shall send for you when we are to have our meeting. You may go,” she said unfurling her hand towards the door.

Stephanie stood and bowed. “Thank you, Sister. I look forward to speaking with the two of you.” With that, Stephanie walked out of the office feeling like that went a lot better than it should have. She couldn’t help but wonder if there was some deeper meaning to Imperator accepting her proposal so quickly. Shaking her head as she closed the door to her office, she made her way to Copia’s office.

He wasn’t there today nor will he be for the next couple of months – he was on tour. She decided it would be best that he would go off without her and she stay here to continue the work that needed to be done. Of course, there was the occasional night where the layover was easier at the church rather at some random hotel where she would be able to be with him again. She relished those days and enjoyed every moment she could until he had to head to another ritual site.

She entered his office and embraced the sickening feeling she got every time she came in after having her nightmare, but she shook it off quickly and got to work.

Some texts were going to be more difficult than others since the church and the Clergy all decided that they needed all texts in the dead language of Latin to be translated – and she was absolutely horrible at Latin. She grabbed one of the thicker books that laid on the floor in front of the desk and sat it down. She wrapped around and sat in Copia’s chair and cracked the book.

She got about halfway down the first page when Leo hopped up on the desk squeaking at her. “Oh, Leo. I’m sorry little one. I didn’t bring you snacks today since I went to Imperator’s office,” she said scratching his head. “I promise I’ll bring double tomorrow to make up for today. Do you forgive me?” She asked the little rat as she held out her hand to him. Leo looked at her with his beady eyes as if he was upset that he wasn’t getting food, yet, he decided to take the warm offer of her hand and bounded up to her shoulder to nuzzle and get comfortable.

Never in a million years did Stephanie think that she would get this close to a rat let along let it crawl onto her. Leo was special though and she loved the little thing almost as much as she loved her Cardinal. Leo sat there on her shoulder contempt watching her work and she giggled to herself as she thought about Copia doing the same thing back in Italy; however, he probably spoke to Leo in Italian more than anything.

“Hmm…” Stephanie hummed. She needed a break already from this horrible text. Who really needed a text of blood rituals translated when we have moved far past that? She decided to work more on her Italian so she could understand and even start to speak to Copia in his native tongue, and who better to test this on but the little rat that sat on her shoulder?

“Ehi, Leo? Come viene il mio italiano? Bene, no?” she asked the little guy.

Leo looked at her like she came from a different planet and sniffed her ear. Poor thing is probably confused. She decided to try something else in Italian.

“Chi è un bravo topo?” she asked him, and he squeaked back at her with what she could only think as enthusiasm. Go figure he’d know that. Copia probably asked him that all the time. She suddenly heard a knock at the door. “Entra!” She called out. Slowly, the door opened, and she saw Sister Gabriel enter the room.

Head bowed and hands clasped in front of her, she shuffled to the desk where Stephanie was. When she looked up, her cheeks were stained with tears and her eyes were bloodshot. “Sister, I-I’ve been told to come and tell you that Imperator and Papa are ready to meet you in the chapel,” she said quietly and sniffled.

“Thank you, sister,” Stephanie said, and the sister turned to leave, “wait,” she said and the sister stopped.

Turning back towards Stephanie, she looked up from the floor again. “Yes, Sister?” she said sniffling still and a fresh tear slid down her cheek.

“What is wrong?”

The sister wiped her eyes with her sleeve and took a deep breath. “Nothing that I should bother you with.” With this, Stephanie sighed, put down her pen, stood up, and walked over to Gabriel.

“Look, I know we aren’t on the best terms, but I still care for the wellbeing of my fellow sisters. Please, tell me what is wrong?” Stephanie asked putting a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder to help comfort.

The sister took in another deep breath and let it out slowly. Sniffling, she looked over at Stephanie’s hand on her shoulder and saw the new piece of jewelry on her finger.

“Sister?”

“Hmm?”

“Is…oh, never mind,” Gabriel said wishing to not jump down that rabbit hole. “I’m just upset about Imperator and what she said to me today.”

“Was that you I saw running out of her office earlier?”

The sister’s eyes widened, “Y-You saw that?”

“Yeah, I was there on the bench outside of her office when it happened.”

Embarrassed, the sister darted her eyes away from Stephanie. “Yeah, I was in there to talk to her about something super important and then she yelled and yelled at me and I lost it and just ran out.”

“If I may?”

“Hmm?”

“What was it about? Maybe I can help since I have to go speak to them?” Stephanie said smiling slightly. Even though she didn’t really like Sister Gabriel at this moment, it doesn’t mean she can’t help.

“Oh, Stephanie. That would be really nice…I’m just…I don’t know if I’m comfortable enough to tell you…” she said softly.

Stephanie screwed up her mouth in frustration. “Fine. If you do not wish to tell me, then don’t. I need to go if you are not going to talk to me,” she said and started for the door.

“Wait…” Gabriel said again softly to her. Stephanie turned around sighing and looked at her.

“What?”

“I…I’m pregnant Stephanie…”

Stephanie’s jaw dropped in awe. “R-really?” she asked, and Gabriel nodded with tears welling back up in her eyes.

“I went to go talk to Imperator about it and she started yelling at me about it since…well since the father is no longer around…” she said, and she was dropping tears left and right.

“The Third?” Stephanie asked knowing what the answer was going to be.

“Mhm…Imperator said I need to…that I need…” she started and then broke down sobbing.

Stephanie walked back over to her and hugged her. Luckily Copia wasn’t here, because if he was, this would be a cluster fuck. “Don’t worry, Sister. I’ll speak to her.”

Sister Gabriel clutched into the hug. “Thank you, Stephanie! Thank you so much!

“You are welcome Sister,” she said and let her go. “No woman should have to go through something that they do not want to do, and Imperator should know that too. I’m still not happy how things are between the two of us,” she said and grabbed the sister by the shoulders, “but I will always look out for all my fellow Sisters of Sin. Now, I must be off before she is pissed at me.” Letting go, Gabriel nodded and wiped her face again with her sleeve.

“Thank you again, Stephanie.”

“You are welcome,” she said and turned back towards the door to leave again.

“Uhm, one more thing?”

Stephanie rolled her eyes and looked behind her. “What now?”

“I don’t think that Imperator or Papa will be happy if you show up with a rat on your shoulder.”

Stephanie looked at her right shoulder and realized that Leo was still there looking at her hungrily. “Oh, Leo. Come on, back on the desk for now,” she said squatting down and putting her hand to the ground. Leo ran off her and onto the desk and looked at her and squeaked. “Yes, I won’t forget the cheese for you tomorrow,” she giggled.

“How…how could you tell what that rat said?” Gabriel asked walking towards the door to leave too, glancing behind her to see the rat curl up on some books.

“I just call it instinct by now. I must be off now Sister. I’ll try my best with Imperator for you.”

“Goodbye Sister and thank you again,” Gabriel said as Stephanie closed the office door.

“Don’t thank me yet,” she said and turned the opposite direction as Sister Gabriel to head towards the chapel.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Seestor!” Papa Nihil cried out as Stephanie entered the chapel.

“Papa,” she said and bowed when she reached him. “Imperator,” she said bowing towards her this time. “Thank you for allowing me to talk to you two.”

Imperator rolled her eyes and tutted. “Sister, you are the one that called us here. Let’s hurry this up hmm?”

“Seestor! No need to rush the girl! She just got here! Now, come, sit, and tell us of this dream you had,” he said patting the seat next to him as he got a glare from Imperator.

Stephanie sat and told the dream to the two. Throughout the recollection, the faces of the two began to grow from straight to downright astonished. Imperator even looked as if she was frightened.

“So, as you can see, this is why I wanted to talk to you two about it. Co-, I mean, the Cardinal could not understand it and said it seemed like something you guys could help me figure out.”

“Sister. I’m happy that you have come to us with this information; however, I do not think it is an omen,” Imperator stated.

“No?”

“I do not think so either Seestor. It seems as if my sons had some unfinished business and took it out on your poor mind,” Nihil said as he picked up his oxygen mask and placed it on his face taking in a deep breath.

“Like…like a ghost? Seriously?” Stephanie chuckled.

“This is no laughing matter, Sister,” Imperator said sternly. “I’m afraid that Papa is right. He himself has had a dream where The First came in and killed him.”

“Seestor here even had a dream where all three ganged up on her and-”

“That’s enough, Papa,” Imperator snapped cutting Nihil off.

“So…you think that Papa wanted to get back at me for helping Copia?” Stephanie asked ignoring the banter between the two whom she was sure were still involved with each other.

“Cardinal Copia,” Imperator corrected with a huff.

“Yes, uhm, the Cardinal,” she said as she began twisting the ring on her finger. Imperator saw this and grimaced but didn’t say anything about it.

“Yes Seestor, it does seem like my sons have been…busy…in the afterlife. No need to worry, I’m sure their shenanigans have come to an end since no one has had a dream since then?” he more asked than stated.

“Yes, Papa,” Stephanie said. “That is a relief that it does not mean much more than that.”  
“Yes, now, it is late. Sister, please excuse us,” Imperator said and they both began to stand.

“Uhm, actually sister, can I speak to you privately?” Stephanie asked.

“Fine. Just make it quick,” she said and shooed the old Papa away. Waiting for him to get out of the room, the two just watched him walk away with his oxygen tank for what seemed like forever. As he finally made it out the door, Imperator sighed.

“That man is going to die from overworking himself…” she muttered and wiped her face. “Okay, Sister. What do you need and or want?”

“Sister Gabriel came to me today and-”

“No. I am not discussing this. I told her my decision was final,” Imperator snapped.

“Sister, if I may?” Stephanie said hesitantly. Imperator waved her hand to motion for her to go on. “I’m not sure if you have had children before, and I sure haven’t, but I feel that no woman should be forced to do something they do not want to do in regard to that,” she said, and Imperator winced.

“I-I do have a child…” she said trailing off while staring into the distance. After a moment, she closed her eyes, breathed in slowly, and then released it. “Alright, Sister. I see your point. I will speak with the Sister tomorrow. She can decide what she wants to do,” she said softly. Stephanie was shocked to see this side of Imperator.

“Thank you, Sister,” Stephanie said bowing.

“Yes, yes. Now, go. It is almost curfew,” she said walking out without saying another word. Stephanie made the trip back to her and Copia’s room twirling the ring on her finger. “He’ll be home soon,” she said to herself as she made it to the empty room. She took off her boots and set them by the door. She padded over to the fireplace, lit it, picked up one of her novels off the bookshelf, and laid on the couch in front of the fireplace and began to read. It has been a long time since she could just read for fun, and recently she has been able to do it more and more. After a few minutes though, Stephanie fell asleep in the warmth of the fireplace.

A few hours later, Stephanie awoke still on the couch. The fire long since went out on its own, and she had an indent in her arm from the book she fell asleep with. She stretched and groaned. She really needed to learn to stop falling asleep on a couch. She got up off the couch and put her book back on the shelf. She sleepily padded her way to the bedroom to actually sleep on something more comfortable than a couch. She stripped off her clothes except for a tank top and her panties and nuzzled her way into the bed. Taking the pillow next to her spot, she cuddled and sniffed it. It smelled like him and it helped her fall asleep when he wasn’t here. She smiled as she nestled her face into the pillow and let the warmth of the blankets take her to sleep once again.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Her alarm went off at six o’clock and she rolled over and shut it off. She yawned and groggily peeled the blankets off of her. She normally didn’t like to get up this early on a weekend, but she really didn’t do any work yesterday and she needed to get at least some of it done. “A couple more days…” she said looking at the empty spot in the bed and then rolled out of bed to head to the bathroom to begin her shower routine. Of course, this time, she is humming _Life Eternal_ instead of _He Is_ – she just could not get it out of her head. It made her so happy too.

Today, she decided to wear her habit and veil since it has been a while since she had worn it. She felt like a horrible sister if she goes too long without wearing it at least once or twice a month. She donned her Grucifix as she normally does every day while thanking the Dark Lord again for what He has given her. While putting on her boots, she decided that she should probably visit confessionals today too since it had been awhile. “I wonder who is doing it today?” she wondered aloud and then made her way to the chapel. “Besides, if I do this, I can easily sneak into the kitchen and get Leo’s cheese that I promised him.”

She made it to the chapel and got into a large line. Usually, the lines aren’t this long, but it is a weekend where most people on a Friday night do many sinful acts and wish to tell someone about them in secret. She stood waiting in this line for like what felt forever and finally she was close to the front. She took a moment to look around the chapel at all the stained-glass windows. Just because it is a Satanic church didn’t mean they didn’t know how to make it look pretty still. Also, just because they worship the Dark Lord, but that doesn’t mean that they are all doom and gloom all the time.

When she was younger, her parents took her to church, so she understood the premise for a lot of the items around the chapel – of course, they are used differently here. She thought back on those times when her parents just didn’t understand her at all. She always felt like she was missing something in her life. Her parents kept saying that the hole needed to be filled by God. What a load of horse shit. God did nothing for her, and as soon as she caught wind of a church that believed exactly that, she left her home behind without a word when she was sixteen. She doesn’t even know if her parents came looking for her or even if they even cared – she didn’t for sure. They could take their bull shit and shove it up their assess – them and her older sister who they seemed to pamper and adorn with affection more than her.

Imperator was the first one there to bring her in and helped her get acquainted. She took classes with the other sisters and learned about the religion to where she could recite Satanic scriptures like it was nothing. Papa Nihil helped her learn the whole layout of the church including the catacombs. She met The Third a few days after her arrival, and they became quick friends even if it was seen as different from the outside. He was a flirt, but as soon as she got in the church fully, the Dark Lord dropped the bomb on her with the necklace so there was not a lot of flirtation back. Sure, The Third was drop-dead gorgeous to her, let her sit in at practices, and even gave her special treatment when it came to rituals, but she still only saw him as a good friend – well a friend that also so happened to be a Papa. She thinks this is why Imperator tore her away from him to work for her – so she stopped being squandered by the rest of the sisters in the church. Or maybe it was to make it easier to kill him.

Someone cleared their throat behind her, and she snapped back to reality. The sister looked at her impatiently and motioned for her to move. “Sorry, Sister,” she said as she realized she was next and was holding up the line. She scuttled over to the confessional and went in. “Forgive me, for I have sinned,” she said as she sat.

“Seestor, sinning is good. What is it that you are wanting to confess to your Papa?”

Ah, so it was Nihil doing them. She was going to make this sweet and simple then. “Papa. I have been in bed with a higher figure of the church and I am in love with him,” she said smiling.

“Ah. Who is this higher figure Seestor?”

“Cardinal Copia.”

Silence followed by a grunt. “Seestor, I can see why you would want to tell of these sins since he is the next head of the church.”

“Yes, Papa. When this happened, I did not envision him being a leader. Just a Cardinal whom I grew feelings for,” she said as she twiddled her ring.

“Seestor Stephanie, yes? I know, I’m not supposed to say names in here, but I cannot help it sometimes!” he said laughing. “Look, I know what you and that Cardinal have been doing. I am not too old to follow,” he said followed by the sound of him taking a hit from his oxygen tank. “I knew you were a smart girl when you joined the church Seestor, and I know He chose who you are to be with but do not forget who is blood around here and who is not.”

Stephanie clenched her hands on the hem of her habit. He is talking shit about Copia just because he isn’t blood? “Papa, thank you. I will take what you have said into consideration. Do not feel discouraged if I do not feel the same way as you do,” she said as she stood to leave.

“Seestor?”

“Yes, Papa?”

“May the Dark Lord look over you,”

“Yeah…” she said and left the confessional putting some emphasis on how she closed the door and made her way to the kitchen to get Leo some cheese.


	16. Enemies Become Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie is already having a terrible day, but it just gets worse when Sister Gabriel comes to see her again. Copia comes home super early.

As she entered the office that she and Copia now shared, she found Leo curled up on her chair asleep. She thought that this was a perfect opportunity to take a picture of him. She whipped out her phone from her boot (since there were no pockets in her habit) and crouched down in front of the chair. She quickly opened the camera on her phone and snapped a photo of him, the flash startling Leo awake.

“I’m sorry Leo! I couldn’t help but take a picture! You are so fucking cute!” She cooed as she petted the little rat. “I’m going to send it to your daddy. I’m sure he won’t have his phone on at all, but when he does, he’ll get the message,” she said as she flipped to his contact in her phone and sent the picture with the caption ‘I’m pretty sure he isn’t coming after my soul looking this cute!’. Smiling to herself for the pun she made and placed her phone back in her boot. Then, she produced the cheese she stole from the kitchen from her other boot.

“Look what I brought you, you spoiled little thing,” she said wagging the baggie in front of Leo. He squeaked in excitement and reared up on his haunches to come even closer to sniff the baggie. “Come on up,” she said reaching her hand out to him which he gladly ran up to her shoulder. “Let’s get to work and get you fat at the same time, eh?” she said chuckling as Leo sniffed her ear. She sat down at the desk and pried open that book she tried to get at yesterday. With renowned energy, she went to work as she slowly fed Leo cheese.

She was having the most difficult time with a specific line about mid-way through the book. She looked at these weird letters over and over again and could not figure them out. There were no context clues, nor had she even seen these figures before. Groaning, she slammed her pen down. “Why the fuck does Latin have to be this fucking hard?” she exclaimed. She needed a break from this before she ripped the book in half. “Come on Leo, we are going to go for a walk,” she said as she got up and headed out of the office.

She didn’t have a particular destination in mind, but she just needed to get away from the work for a while. She ended up walking through the courtyard, seeing all the beautiful flowers around. There were a couple of sisters there too, but they dashed away quickly as they saw Leo on her shoulder. “Don’t worry little one. Not everyone can love a rat. Even I didn’t at first, remember?” she said to him as she sat down on a bench leaning back and closing her eyes. She just sat there and took in the smells and the sounds around her. It was very calming, and she wondered why she has never done this before.

She felt a vibration in her boot after a few moments and retrieved it. Shockingly, she saw that Copia responded to her – “Haha! How adorable. I had some free time while waiting for the car to get back to the hotel and decided to check-in. Why are you working on a weekend? I know you don’t love Latin that much, haha. I miss you, cara.”

She responded: “I miss you too. I didn’t do much work yesterday since I talked to Imperator and Papa about the nightmare. I’ll update you on everything when you get home. I cannot wait to see you again. Be safe <3”

She waited a few minutes and no reply came. He must have arrived and had to get back to work. She smiled though because he made time in his busy day to respond to her. She hadn’t contacted him for the couple of months or so he had been away to make sure she didn’t distract him, but this she just couldn’t help because she knew he was coming home. She stuffed her phone back into her boot and resumed her calming experience of hearing the birds (along with the occasional sniff from Leo) and the smell of the fresh air.

“Stephanie?” someone said to her and she opened her eyes to see Sister Gabriel there in front of her. “Can I sit with you?”

Stephanie closed her eyes again and scooted over to make room for the sister. “What is it, Sister?” she asked and felt the sister sit next to her.

“I wanted to come and tell you that Imperator talked to me. I can keep my baby, and I have you to thank for that,” she said.

“You are welcome,” Stephanie said not opening her eyes.

“Can I ask you something?” Gabriel asked.

“Hmm?”

“That ring you have. The Cardinal gave it to you right?”

“Yes.”

“So, it is possible…” she said trailing off.

Stephanie opened one eye and looked at her. “What is?”

“That higher officials can marry us sisters.”

“Why did you not think it was possible?” Stephanie asked confused. Even she knew that it could happen even before she met the Cardinal.

“The Third said it was not something that could happen between us…” she said softly. “I loved him Steph, and I thought he loved me. So, I asked him about it.”

“And?” Stephanie asked curiously.

“He said it wasn’t able to happen because Papas were not allowed to without proper consent and then he clarified saying that it couldn’t happen with any higher official without proper consent. I asked he what he meant by this and told me not to worry so I just let it go. Then, yesterday, I saw your ring. I knew immediately what it was based on what finger you are wearing it on, and it got me thinking,” she said looking down to the ground, “what if he just said that because he didn’t love me? What if I was just someone who he could fuck easily?” She quietly said.

“The only person you could ask is not able to answer, Sister.”

“You knew him, though didn’t you?”

“Don’t play that game with me. You know that answer,” Stephanie snapped. The Third is one of the major reasons why they had a falling out.

Gabriel flushed red. “You are right, Sister...”

“I still cannot answer for him even though he was a friend. I was not speaking with him much as soon as Imperator whisked me away from him.”

The sister hummed in response. “I just wish I could have told him.”

“I understand,” Stephanie said in response brushing Leo out of her ear again.

They both sat in silence for a few minutes. Stephanie wondered why Gabriel was still there and why she was always coming to her. Didn’t she have other sisters to talk to? Like the sisters she abandoned her for. She figured that now was a better time than any to talk to her about this.

“Sister?”

“Hmm?”

“May I ask you something?”

“Of course, Steph.”

“Not to sound super rude, but why are you talking to me about this stuff? Why haven’t you run off to your other friends?”

“They stopped being my friends a long time ago.”

“Oh?”

“After I…well…after I decided to stop being your friend, they started treating me the same way I was treating you. I only treated you as such because I was jealous because I fancied The Third and you were with him all the time. It’s even my fault that Imperator took you away from working with him.”

Stephanie snapped her head towards her. “You fucking did what?” she said seething.

“I told Imperator that you were being distracted from your duties by being with him and that you weren’t taking the Dark Lord’s will seriously…” she said dropping her eyes to the floor. “I was just so jealous that you got to spend all the time with him, and I couldn’t.”

Stephanie only saw red at that moment. She was super pissed and slapped the sister across the face. It was so hard, it echoed across the courtyard and Leo ran from her shoulder terrified and back towards the church. “How. Fucking. Dare. You.” She spat and got up to leave. Gabriel grabbed her arm and looked at her pleadingly, a handprint becoming prominent on her face.

“Stephanie, please. I hate myself for it and I feel that The Third hated me for it too…” she said tears welling up in her eyes.

Stephanie yanked her arm out of her grasp. “Good. He was wise enough to hate you for it. He was just unwise to keep fucking you to the point he knocked you up. I wish he was here so I could see the look on his face as he denied you,” she said seething and turned on her heels and stormed away from the sister.

“Stephanie, please! I know you are mad! Can we please just talk this through?” Gabriel cried after her as she ran to catch up to her.

Stephanie stopped on a dime and whirled around to look at her. “I’m done talking. You were my best friend. I told you everything. I told you my secrets, my life story, and how much I enjoyed having a friend in you and Papa immediately coming here. You took all that, threw it in the dirt, and pissed on it. Then, you went ahead and spread shit about me and told lies to Imperator about me. No fucking wonder she caned me before assigning me to work with her only. You made me look like a fool, made me feel more than pain for losing people. Fuck. You. I’m done,” she said all through her teeth.

“I said I was sorry!”

“I don’t give a fuck! Just because you say you are sorry doesn’t mean a fucking thing to me!”

“SISTERS!” A scream came out from the gates of the courtyard. Fucking Imperator. Great.

Imperator stormed her way towards the two. “My office, now!” She yelled at them as she grabbed the two by the wrists and practically dragged them to her office. As they got there, Imperator practically threw them inside and slammed the door shut.

“What in unholy hell are you two arguing about so loud out there that I could hear it all the way in here?” She asked angrily glancing looks back and forth between the two sisters. Stephanie still looking pissed, tutted and crossed her arms looking away. Gabriel looked ashamed, the red mark on her face getting more swollen by the second.

“Sister Stephanie. Is that mark your doing?”

“So, what if it is?” She snapped without looking at Imperator.

“Look at me when speaking child,” Imperator said slamming her palms on her desk. It made the two sisters jump. Stephanie just snapped her head towards Imperator and stared her down.

Imperator got up and got right into Stephanie’s face. “I would think twice before giving me an attitude child.”

“Sister Imperator. Please. I deserved it more than anything…” Gabriel said almost whispering.

“I am not speaking to you Sister Gabriel! You best be quiet.” She snapped at her and Gabriel’s face fell towards the floor.

“What is this about, sister?” Imperator asked Stephanie who was still seething.

“This is about how my previous best friend here pissed me off beyond belief and told lies to get what she wanted. She made my life shit just so she could go behind everyone else’s back to get fucked,” she said through her teeth.

Imperator stood straight and glared at her, and her hand quickly snapped across Stephanie’s face. Stephanie grabbed her face but didn’t make a sound. “I told you to think twice about giving me attitude child,” she said as she then walked over to Gabriel. She grabbed her by the chin and looked at the swollen mark. “You. What have you done child?”

Gabriel looked as if she was trying really hard not to cry. “S-Sister. I lied to you and the church about her to make my way into the bed of The Third…” she muttered.

Imperator threw the sister's face away from her and she walked back and sat behind her desk. She folded her hands and placed them on her desk. “Sit. Both of you.” The sisters quickly sat down in the chairs and bowed their heads down. “I do not appreciate any of this shit that has transcribed here today. I am so very close to making sure neither one of you are here at this church come tomorrow morning.” This comment made Stephanie’s stomach leap into her throat and she glanced up to see Imperator staring directly at her. Her eyes immediately darted back down to the floor. “Due to…certain…circumstances…I will not do that, but you two need to knock this shit off.”

Gabriel could be heard sniffling and Stephanie was almost there herself. If Copia was here, he’d be so disappointed in her. “Sorry, Sister,” they both said in an almost unison.

“I’m not even going to ask where the lies began or even where they ended. You two will stay here in my office for an hour while I go and make my rounds with the junior sisters. When I come back, you better be on better terms. Or I will make sure that neither one of you are here as of tonight.” With that, she stood and left her office locking the door behind her.

The two sisters sat in silence for a couple of minutes and didn’t even look at each other. Both now having red marks upon their faces and both having tears streaming down their faces. Stephanie kept trying to think of something to say but all she could think about is Copia and how upset he’s going to be. She heard Gabriel next to her sigh and she looked over at her to see her looking right back at her.

“Steph…I-I didn’t mean for any of this to happen…” she muttered. Stephanie just continued to stare at her. Everything that popped into her head was bitchy and she just needed to calm down. She sighed and just put her face in her hands, wincing a bit since her face still hurt from where Imperator hit her.

“I know you don’t want to talk to me, so let me do the talking. I know what I did was wrong and I myself went against the Dark Lord. You did not, and I made it seem like you were the one that did, and I didn’t. I was stupid jealous and every day after those other sisters treated me like I treated you, I hated myself for it. Papa probably hated me for it too. He probably just enjoyed that I allowed him between my legs. I don’t expect us to be friends again at all Steph…I just…” she trailed off stifling back sobs.

Stephanie looked at her again and she thought about all she said. She turned her chair to look at her dead on and motioned for her to do the same. It was time for her to be nice and let go of the past. She grabbed Gabriel’s hands and held them tight. “Sister…Gabriel…I-I don’t know if I can forgive you yet for all that you did to me in the past, but I think it is time I start to let go of it and move forward. I have already done good deeds for you as if you were my friend again.”

Gabriel let go of Stephanie’s hands and wiped her tears with her sleeve. “Can we just start over? Get to know each other again?”

Stephanie looked at her and thought about it for a moment. It would be nice to have another person on her side of things. Just having someone there to back you up whenever needed would be nice. Copia of course already does, but the more the merrier right? She smiled which made Gabriel smile. “Yes, Sister. I would like that.”

Gabriel leaped out of her seat and hugged Stephanie. “Thank you! Oh my gosh, thank you!”

Stephanie hugged her back. “Of course. Let’s start over. I’m tired of this fighting and honestly, I don’t think either one of us could take another hit…” she said looking down. “I-I’m sorry I did that. My anger-”

“I know what you are like when you are mad, Steph. That’s why I pushed past it. Of course, you hitting me hurt, and it still does, but honestly, I deserve it after what I did. You did not deserve getting hit by Imperator though.”

“How bad does it look?” Stephanie asked turning her face so Gabriel could take a good look at it.

“As if someone hit you with a chair…you are already getting a black eye.”

Stephanie groaned. “Copia is going to hate me…”

“We can use some makeup to help cover it up?”

“No, he’ll notice. I’d rather tell him the truth over hiding it from him. For all I know, he already knows what happened. I’m going to have an earful when he returns.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much. He loves you right?”

“I sure fucking hope so after all we have gone through and all that he has told me.”

“Has he said it?”

“Of course he has.”

“That must be thrilling!” Gabriel beamed.

Stephanie chuckled. “The first time he said it, I couldn’t even understand him. Then, when he said it in English, I felt my heart do flips and my stomach dropped out my ass.”

Gabriel laughed. “You and your mouth. I missed this…” she said and got quiet.

Stephanie had tears welling up in her eyes. She missed this too. Gabriel hurt her so much, but this here, this is what it used to be. Talking back and forth, gossiping, laughing, smiling. She hugged Gabriel again. “Me too, Sister.”

They then heard a click at the door, and it swung open to reveal Imperator. “I’m not sure what happened while I was gone, but it looks like you two are doing much better. If you two are not going to be throwing hissy fits in my church anymore, you can leave.”

Stephanie and Gabriel both stood, bowed, and walked out without saying a word to Imperator. Stephanie turned to shut the door when she heard Gabriel curse under her breath. She turned around and was grounded. Down the hall, she could see Copia basically running to them smiling. Oh good, he didn’t know what happened…yet…

“Stephanie! Amore!” He called out and scooped her into a hug as soon as he reached her. He planted kisses all over the top of her head and spun her around.

“Copia! What are you doing home early?” she asked keeping her face buried in his chest.

“The last tour spot we had to cancel. Weather issues. So, we came right home. Oh, I have missed you so much, cara!” he said gleefully hugging her tighter. He seemed to have completely missed that Sister Gabriel was there too, and as soon as he spotted her, he went rigid. He let go of Stephanie quickly and his hands melded together immediately – a flush of red spreading across his face. “F-Forgive me, Sister. I did not realize you were there,” he said slightly bowing.

“O-Oh, Cardinal. It’s alright. Please, your excellency, you don’t need to bow to me,” she said getting red too.

“Ah. I’ve done it again...” he said embarrassed.

“Yes, you have,” Stephanie said grabbing his hand to keep them still. That was a mistake. He looked up to her and saw the bruise forming on her face.

Eyes wide, his left hand came up to caress her face and she winced in pain. “Cara…who did this to your beautiful face?”

“I’d rather not speak about it here,” Stephanie whispered and grabbed his hand to pull it off her face.

“No. Tell me. No one is allowed to touch my woman like…like this!”

How in the world can he go from super anxious and embarrassed to out and open and slightly filled with rage? Stephanie will never know nor understand. “Copia, please,” she begged to try and get out of earshot of Imperator.

“Sister,” he said turning to Gabriel. “Tell me. Who?” he asked sternly.

Gabriel squeaked at the sternness. “Imperator, your dark excellency.”

Stephanie shot her a glance and she was just looking at the floor terrified. Just like her to get scared when there is an authoritative voice.

“Our room. Now,” he said quietly as he looked towards Imperator’s office. He melded his hand with Stephanie’s and lead her towards it.

“Bye!” Gabriel called out after them as they rounded the corner.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Entering their room, Copia slammed the door behind him making Stephanie jump. Alright. He’s pissed.

“Why would Imperator do this?” he hissed at her.

Stephanie sighed. This is going to take a bit. “I’m not even sure where to begin.”

“How about when you got that black eye?”

“You wouldn’t understand if I just told you how it happened.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’ve had a very shitty day and it just got worse and it ended up with me mouthing off to Imperator more than once and so she hit me!” Stephanie snapped. She was done with the day. She was so happy to have her Cardinal back, but if this is how it was going to be, she’d rather go and cry it out alone.

With that, Copia’s face softened and brought her into a hug. “Oh, cara. I’m so sorry. Please, tell me what happened to make you so upset.” His hug was so tender and comforting, Stephanie started dripping tears. “Come, let’s go sit, yes? You can take your time.”

They sat and Stephanie trudged through her day: Nihil being a dick, the Latin book being a dick, then the situation with Gabriel in the courtyard, and then to what happened in Imperator’s office. “So, that is why she hit me,” she said sniffling.

“Quella cagna di capra…” he mumbled caressing her cheek again. She again winced in pain – Imperator must have gotten her really good. She hit Gabriel hard and it only swelled up for a little bit and then disappeared. “Let’s get some ice on it,” he said going to the kitchen.

As he dug through the freezer, Stephanie got up and walked to the counter and sat on one of the stools. “So, me and Gabriel made up,” she said to him and he froze for a moment and then kept on digging.

“Oh? How did that happen?” he asked. Dammit. That fucking ice pack is in there somewhere…

“Imperator locked us in her office for an hour telling us we better get our situation under control otherwise she’d make sure we weren’t a part of this church come sundown.”

He found the ice pack at that and then slammed the freezer shut. “That bitch,” he said wrapping the ice pack up in a towel and handing it to Stephanie. He sighed. “I cannot believe some of the words that come out of her mouth. She can be kind, but then she can just be a rude goat.”

He walked around the counter and Stephanie couldn’t help but watch. Damn his outfit. He came and sat next to her and wrapped his arm around her waist. She rested her head on his shoulder and nuzzled. “Fuck, I missed this,” she said.

“As did I,” he said and kissed her hair.

“So, how’d the tour go? Get any new bitches?” she chuckled.

“Oh, so many,” he said laughing. “So many, I don’t even remember a single one.”

“Is that so? Wow, Copia. Quite the charmer,” she chuckled some more.

“Well…come to think of it, there was this one. It was at the beginning of the tour too,” he said gripping her side tightly.

“Oh yeah?”

“Mhm. The most beautiful woman in the crowd. Sang along to every song. Stood right up in front,” he said grabbing her free hand and gave it a squeeze.

“Wow must have been pretty memorable.”

“Oh yes. She was enthralled by this…oh…skintight outfit.” He said as he framed himself.

She quickly grabbed his thigh. “Oh yes. I can see why,” she said rubbing up and down, “with thighs like these, I don’t know what woman wouldn’t be.”

“T-Thighs?” he asked confused.

“Mhm. And these knees of yours, Copia? When you stand a certain way, they bend differently which are pretty sexy in their own way.”

“M-My knees now? Stephanie, I think you are confused.”

“Oh, no. Of course, one of the best parts is how the pants make your ass look. I know you get into that music so much you act like a horn dog. I bet you showed your ass off for every stage you were on,” she said drifting her hand closer to his crotch. “And you cannot forget about the best part,” she said grabbing his cock. “This here is visible for everyone to see. You sexy man you, showing your cock off to the whole world.”

“Steph!” he cried out embarrassed, but she could feel him getting harder in her grip.

“Oh, shush. You know, for how anxious you are and how embarrassed you get, when you get up there on that stage, you are open to everything,” she said starting to stroke him as he just got harder and harder. “I think you are so closed off, but then lose yourself to the music. Which is fine, because I do too. Any woman out there who saw this magnificent cock would feel like you owe them a dicking, and I think you enjoy knowing and showing it.”

Copia quickly grabbed her hand while stifling a moan. “Stephanie, love.”

Stephanie put down the ice pack and gave him a seductive look. “Yes, my Cardinal?”

His mouth smashed into hers hungrily, his tongue immediately asking for entrance into her mouth. He stood and grabbed at her waist, picking her up from the stool. She wrapped her legs around his hips, and he brought her to their room throwing her on the bed.

“Strip.”

  
  



	17. The Dark Lord's Will

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie has a run-in with a sister from the past. Sister Gabriel gets some bad news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first part of this chapter is smut. If you don't want to read, please skip to the next part.

Veil and habit on the floor, Stephanie sat on the bed on her knees, presenting herself to her Cardinal.

“You look divine,” Copia purred as he unbuttoned his jacket revealing his freckled chest that Stephanie loved and craved so much.

“Get over here,” she said to him, beckoning him with a finger as he stripped off his tight pants. He sauntered over and crawled on top of her, kissing her deeply. Stephanie could feel him hard and ready on her stomach, and she was more than ready for him. She reached down between the two of them and caressed him as their tongues danced together. He let out a low moan that came from deep within his chest that made heat pool in her stomach as she felt it.

He rode his hands up her sides slowly, caressing her every curve. “I missed you,” he sighed on her lips.

“I missed you too,” she said letting go of his member and wrapped her arms around him holding him to her.

This intense make-out session was getting deep as she began to feel herself get hot all over. Slowly they undressed each other the rest of the way and Copia reached down and fondled her core. She hissed out a moan as he slowly teased her nub of nerves. She raked her nails down his back which made him tense up and moan deeply which she could feel resonate through her whole body.

“P-Please. Copia, I need you inside me,” she barely got out as he took one of her breasts in his mouth. She felt him moan on her and it shot electricity down her spine.

He spread her legs and positioned his head right at her entrance and teased her with it. “You are so wet for me, amore,” he said grunting a bit feeling her juices spread on his head. He leaned over her and kissed her and slowly pressed himself into her. They both moaned out from the pleasure of becoming one again. He pushed until he bottomed out in her and caressed the un-harmed side of her face. He stayed like that for a moment, kissing down to her neck so she could get adjusted to him again. Finding the sensitive part of her neck, he felt her hips buck into him with a moan and began to slowly move in and out of her.

“Fuck,” said as he slowly teased her insides. She could feel her stomach begin to coil already as he hit slowly her spot over and over again.

As he kissed and nipped at her, he showered her with words of worship and praise. He wrapped his hands behind her back and lifted her up to where she was practically sitting on him while he was on his haunches. Stephanie wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her forehead against his. He slowly drove into her as they stared into each other’s eyes, this moment becoming more sensational by the moment.

Sweat beading on their skin, they began to ride the edge together. Practically panting, Copia’s thrusts began to be less rhythmic. Stephanie could feel him get even harder inside her which made her walls come clenching down on him harder. They didn’t pick up speed, instead, they continued to make love like this. Copia caressed her hips a little tighter as he felt himself almost tip over the edge and the look on her face told him she was close too. “Don’t close your eyes, amore. I want to watch you cum as I spill into you,” he panted out.

“I wouldn’t even dare to,” she rasped out.

The sensation of riding the edge for this long together was euphoric. Her heart felt like it was going to burst from the feeling of being loved like this. “I love you,” she panted out.

“I love you, Stephanie,” he purred. At this testament, he felt her tense up completely, and she gripped him tightly. Feeling her walls squeeze as she moaned in sweet ecstasy, he spilled inside of her and let out a moan himself never leaving her gaze.

Stephanie felt him spill into her and she fell over the edge with him, she herself never taking her eyes off him. At that moment, she felt him touching her soul as they came together.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stephanie stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. It has been a few weeks now since Imperator hit her, and her bruise is finally disappearing. She poked a few of the bruised areas that have now started to turn yellow – luckily, they didn’t hurt anymore. She just couldn’t believe that a slap that didn’t really hurt much could leave such a bruise and was just happy that she didn’t do such damage to Gabriel when she slapped her.

Ah yes, Gabriel. They were to meet up today for lunch. They have been meeting up once a week since that day to talk and get to know each other again. Each week, Stephanie could see the very small changes in her face from being pregnant. She has been keeping her wish of not letting people know about it, even Copia – she was going to tell people when she was ready.

She put some concealer on her bruise since it was not appealing at all to look at and made her way to Gabriel’s dorm.

The walk there was long, and she passed by many people on the way. They all were super engrossed in their conversations and some were leaning against the open windows smelling the fresh air. It was a very nice day out and Stephanie thought about going and having lunch outside. Someone suddenly stepped in front of her blocking her path making her run right into them.

“Look who it is, sisters,” a familiar face said to her.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Hey, Constance,” she said and seeing that she had her mean girl fan club with her.

“There have been some rumors floating around that you took a beating from Imperator,” she said clicking her tongue. “What did stuck up Stephanie do this time to deserve that, huh?”

“Look, Constance. I don’t have time for your bull shit. Please move,” she said as she tried to sidestep around her.

Constance laughed and shoved her back. “Oh, Stephanie. You know that’s not how this works. Don’t think that just because you gained the courage to go and fuck the Cardinal that you have gained a position higher than me,” she snickered.

Stephanie closed her eyes and clenched her hands into fists. Breathing in and then back out slowly, she re-opened her eyes and stared at Constance with a fury. “Look. I don’t give a fuck what you think. I have a schedule that I need to attend to. Get the fuck out of my way.”

Constance and her groupies laughed at her and Constance shoved her back up against the wall. “I don’t think so.”

She knew what was coming – she has been beaten up by these girls enough to know. She clenched her eyes shut waiting for it to happen. She didn’t want to fight back this time. She was trying to control her anger as much as possible since Imperator struck her. She was just going to take it and move on with her day.

“What’s going on here?” she heard a familiar voice say.

She opened her eyes and saw the very woman she really didn’t want to see – Imperator. Tagging along behind her, to her relief, was her Cardinal. The sisters backed off her and bowed their heads towards the two.

“Sister. Your Dark Excellency.”

“I’m not going to ask again. What is going on here?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary, Sister,” Constance said sweetly.

Imperator looked at her, obviously not giving into her bull shit. She side glanced at Stephanie up against the wall and then glared back at the other sisters. “Do you see me as a fool?”

“No, Sister!” Constance renounced looking shocked.

Imperator crossed her arms. “Lying is something that I do not tolerate. Especially from a senior sister like yourself. Ganging up on other sisters is also something that I do not tolerate,” she snapped.

Constance looked at her groupies in shock and brought a hand to her chest. “Why, Sister. I do not think you understand what is actually going on,” she said trying to act innocent.

“Drop the shit. I saw everything that occurred down the hall, Sister. All three of you are on kitchen duty until I say so. You understand me?” Imperator sternly said.

“Why do we and not her?!” Constance screamed and pointed at Stephanie.

“What did she possibly do?” Imperator asked stepping forward. Before Constance could speak another word, Imperator cut her off. “Don’t you dare lie to me,” she said through her teeth.

“Ah, if I may, Sister?” Copia spoke up finally.

Constance huffed. “If it’s just to protect your fuck buddy here, we don’t want to hear it. No, offense Cardinal.”

Copia took a step back in shock, eyes widening. Imperator looked as if she was literally about to burst into flames. In an instant, Constance was being grabbed by Imperator and brought her close.

“How dare you speak to him like that,” she seethed through her teeth.

Constance just laughed. “You told me not to lie.”

Imperator’s grip tightened. “That’s it. You and your friends here, in my office right now. We are going to discuss the terms of your removal from this church.”

Constance’s jaw dropped. “S-Sister. You can’t be serious?”

“Do I look like I’m joking? I do not tolerate this kind of behavior here. All three of you. Now.” She said as she rounded all three of the troublesome sisters up. “Oh, Cardinal,” she said before leaving, “don’t forget what we were talking about. And take care of your sister.” With that, she marched the other sisters away.

As the rounded the corner, Copia, who was previously frozen, finally moved and grabbed Stephanie into a hug. “Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah, I think so. They didn’t do anything this time other than push me,” she said wrapping herself into his hug. “I’m more sorry about how they spoke to you.”

“Don’t worry about me, cara. I'm just glad they didn't hurt you,” he said letting her go. “Now that I know you are okay, I know you have a lunch date. I relieve you of translation duty for the day,” he said smiling.

“Oh, thank you, Cardinal. Whatever was I going to do without your permission,” she said sarcastically and stuck her tongue out at him.

Copia lifted her face to his with his finger. “Keep showing me that, and I’ll have to make you use it,” he whispered.

“Promise?”

He chuckled. “Promise. Now, get going. You are late,” he said.

“Okay, I’ll see you tonight then?”

“Always.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Tell me everything!” Gabriel exclaimed after sitting with her lunch.

“There really isn’t much to tell. Constance was her normal bitchy self, mouthed off to Imperator, insulted Copia, and then was dragged away with the rest of her posse,” Stephanie said with a shrug and took a bite of her sandwich.

“But what did she say? Something had to set Imperator off.”

Stephanie sighed. “I really don’t want to say…” she said and blushed bright red.

“Oh my god. She said something about you and the Cardinal, didn’t she?” Stephanie just nodded in response. “Fucking cunt. She deserved what she got then.”

Stephanie giggled. “It sounds like you are hanging around me too much. Picking up my mouth.”

Gabriel playfully smacked Stephanie’s arm. “My god, you are right. My child is going to have the worst vocabulary!”

The two laughed together. Stephanie thought that this was exactly how her friendship with her should have been a long time ago. She was enjoying being around her again; learning everything about her and what she went through. She enjoyed opening up about her own life too and telling her how things have been for her for the past couple of years. Of course, there was the talk about how she and Copia ended up being together, but she never talked about The Third around her. She could see it hurt her too much.

“Hey, can I ask you a serious question?” Gabriel asked.

“Sure?”

“What would you think about me naming you as a godmother?”

Stephanie’s jaw dropped. “A-Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“I’d be honored, Gabriel.”

Gabriel squealed with excitement and hugged Stephanie tightly. “Oh, I’m so happy! Thank you!”

Stephanie hugged her back. “Of course. Though, there has been one thing on my mind about your baby…” she said trailing off.

“Hmm?” Gabriel hummed letting her go.

“Well…because, well, because the baby is, uh, Papa’s,” a wince from Gabriel, “do you think that, well, that the church is going to try and take them since it is a part of the bloodline?”

Gabriel wrapped her arms around herself. “No…,” she said quietly. “I-I know that won’t happen,” she said as tears welled up in her eyes.

“I’m sorry. It was just a question. It’s okay, I won’t bring it up again,” Stephanie spilled feeling bad for making Gabriel feel this way.

Gabriel sniffled. “It’s not you asking me that hurts. It’s what the church told me that hurts the most.”

“You don’t have to tell me. Come on, let’s just move to a different topic huh?”

“Okay…” she said, and she wiped her eyes. “So, do you think that I can ever meet the Cardinal properly? Like, well, like you. Not like me where I have to be formal? He seems like an okay guy, and I want to make some more friends around here.”

Stephanie grinned. “He’s very skittish around new people, you know. I’m sure I can get him to warm up to the idea of talking to you without stuttering or even without leather squeaks.”

Gabriel giggled. “From what I hear from you, and from what I have seen of him when he doesn’t notice other people around, he’s super lovey-dovey and open. It’s like he lives in a bubble and you burst it for him every time you are around each other.”

Stephanie closed her eyes and smiled wide. “Yeah, he is like that, isn’t he?”

“You are so fucking in love with him.”

“You don’t have to convince me of that. Come on, he should be in his office. I’ll introduce you properly,” she said as they both got up from the table.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The two sisters walked into the office. Gabriel, this being her second time in here, actually looked around to see what it was. Luckily, Stephanie cleaned up the place while Copia was gone, so it wasn’t as dusty.

Copia was sitting at his desk. He had his head in one hand and a pen in the other looking super frustrated. Leo was on the other side of the desk asleep and basking in the light of the lamp. He heard the door click closed and he looked up to see the two sisters. He put his pen down with a look of relief and smiled at Stephanie. “Ah, amore. Come te la passi?”

“Va bene,” she said winking at him. She knew that he loved it when she spoke Italian back to him, so she was doing everything in her power to learn and communicate in the language. It also made him calmer to speak in his native tongue.

“Ah sì. Molto bene,” he said as he stood from his desk. “I, uh, see we have a visitor. Sister...Gabriel? Correct?”

Gabriel bowed. “That’s correct your Dark Excellency.”

“P-Please. You, uh. Well, you don’t have to bow like that,” he said his hands coming together.

Stephanie sauntered over to him and placed a hand on his arm. “Va bene amore mio. Sono qui per te.”

Copia let his hands go and put one on top of hers and smiled. “Grazie.”

Stephanie smiled and looked at Gabriel and back to him. “Copia, you’ve met Gabriel before, but only briefly. She wants to get to know the both of us. What do you say?” She could feel his hand twitch on top of hers and his muscles go rigid.

“Ah, uh, okay,” he said side glancing at Stephanie who was smiling at him. “So, uh. Sister-”

“Gabriel. You can just call me Gabriel if that is okay with you?”

He swallowed hard. “Heh, yeah. Sure. Uh, Gabriel. Do you, uh…” he said trailing off darting his eyes across the room trying to look for something to talk about. His eyes landed on Leo. “Do you like rats?”

Stephanie facepalmed. “Really? That’s what you are going to ask?” she whispered.

“I do actually,” Gabriel smiled.

Copia and Stephanie looked at her quickly. “Y-You do?” Copia stammered out.

“Yeah. I think they are cute.”

“Va bene! Come, look! Leo, you lazy rat wake up!” Copia said scratching the little rat’s belly making Leo squeak awake. He picked Leo up and shoved him towards Gabriel. “This is Leo. He’s gotten fat,” he said looking at Stephanie who just shrugged and giggled.

“Aww! Leo! You are so cute! Can I hold him?”

“Sì, you can,” he said, and Gabriel held out her hands. Leo sniffed and then crawled into her hands.

“Why, hello there little guy!” she cooed.

“You handled that very well, Sister. Much better than Steph,” he said glancing at her smiling.

“Shut up,” she said and crossed her arms. She couldn’t help but smile though because he was coming out of his shell.

“So, Cardinal. I hear you are translating texts?” Gabriel asked petting Leo. Stephanie knew this move. She was trying to get him to talk more.

“Uh, yeah. Stephanie and I both are actually,” he said going back to fidgeting with his hands. “Oh, I’m also stuck on the same passage as you Steph. I haven’t seen anything like it,” he said a little quiet, embarrassed that even he was having issues.

“Can I try?” Gabriel asked.

“Uh, sure?” he said stepping out of the way.

Gabriel put Leo down on the desk and looked at the passage that they were having issues with. “Oh, I see why you would get stuck. For some reason, this passage is written in Vulgar Latin rather than the Latin that we are used to which is Ecclesiastical. The writers of this must not have had a proper wording for this passage in Ecclesiastical so they used Vulgar,” she said scribbling on the paper what it said. Both Copia and Stephanie stared at her in shock. Gabriel flipped a couple of pages and nodded. “Yeah, that seems to be the case since the rest of it is in the more common use of Latin,” she said looking up to see the two staring at her. “What?”

“H-How did you know that?” Copia asked.

“What? About the different types of Latin?”

“There are two types?” Stephanie asked.

“Oh, no. There are three. Classical, Vulgar, and Ecclesiastical.” Stephanie and Copia stared at her some more, awestruck. Gabriel got really red in the face and looked down. “Papa taught me all the forms of Latin. He…he said that I might need to use it later on in life.”

“Well it saved our asses,” Stephanie said stepping forward and giving her a hug. “So, thank you.”

Gabriel hugged her back. “You’re welcome, I guess? The person who you should thank the most isn’t here anymore.”

Copia winced at that. “That reminds me, amore. I need to speak with you about something.”

“What is it?”

“Ah, well…” he stammered looking at Gabriel.

“Don’t worry. She’s not going to go around telling your secrets. She’s a different person from her past self.”

He cleared his throat. “Right...uh. Well, you know I had a meeting with Imperator today?”

“Yes?”

“It was about, well about you Sister,” he said looking at Gabriel.

Gabriel looked at him panic-stricken. “Wh-What about me?”

Copia’s eyes darted to another part of the room. “The uh, the child.”

“What about my baby!?” she shrieked.

“Shh...calm down,” Stephanie said softly.

“No! What about it!? Cardinal! Tell me!”

“Well, Imperator said the Dark Lord called unto her to tell her about your child. It’s to be a son.”

Gabriel teared up. “R-Really?”

“Yes, but, uh, there was something else.”

“What?”

“I-I, uh, I’m not sure you really would want to hear it, Sister. It’s, well, uh, hmm. How do I put it?”

“Just fucking spit it out!” Gabriel yelled.

“Woah, woah, woah. Calm down please?” Stephanie said laying a hand on her shoulder.

She took in a shaky breath and released it slowly. “Yes. Thank you. I’m sorry Cardinal. Please go on.”

“It’s ok Sister,” he gripped his hands really hard, the leather creaking as if it was about to shatter. “Due to the bloodline, the Dark Lord wants your child for His own.”

Gabriel gripped her stomach, and slowly fell to her knees crying. “No! This is all I have left of him!” she sobbed. “He can’t! No! Cardinal you have to do something!”  
“I am not one to go against the Dark Lord’s will, Sister.”

Through her sobs, she could be heard saying “This is what I get from before.”

“Gabriel, hey, look at me,” Stephanie said going down to Gabriel’s level. “I understand that you are upset, but if the Dark Lord wills it, then it must be done.”

“I-I know,” she said still crying. “I just don’t want to lose the last tie I have to him.”

Stephanie hugged her tightly. “I know.” She held her like that for a few minutes while sobs racked through her friend's body. She looked over at Copia and saw him standing there wringing his hands feverishly and obviously very uncomfortable. His eyes were darting everywhere but where they were on the floor. Finally, she caught his eye and mouthed “Help.”

Copia squeezed his hands together and took in a sharp breath. “Uh…” is all he could get out. He thought for a second and tried again. “Uh, Sister? I’m sure you’ll be able to raise the little one still. From what I know, it’s kind of, like, uh, well, like when the child comes of age, they must swear themselves to Him. Just like all the Papa’s had to do – and even myself when I was brought to the church.”

Gabriel looked up at him, her face so wet one could probably see their reflection in it. “Y-You sure?”

Copia swallowed hard. “Well, uh. I’m not really sure. I could, well, ask Imperator about it...?”

“Y-You would do that for,” she sniffled hard, “for me?”

“We sure will,” Stephanie said. “We will make sure what this all means before we just assume the worst.”

“Thank you, guys,” she said as Stephanie handed her a tissue. “I-I’m going to go to my room now if you don’t mind?” she said standing up. “I need some time alone to think about this.”

“Sure, do you want me to walk you back?” Stephanie asked.

“No. No, I just need to be alone right now.”

Stephanie hugged her. “Alright, well, just let me know if you need anything.”

Hugging her back Gabriel smiled again. “Thanks. I will. Uh, thank you Cardinal,” she said, and she showed herself out of the office.

Copia let go of a breath he didn’t realize he was holding in. “That, uh, didn’t go very well did it?”

“Not at all. Come here, I need a hug,” Stephanie said curling herself up into him.

Copia hugged her tightly and kissed the top of her head. “All we can do is ask Imperator.”

“That’s the worst part.”

“Yes. However, amore, I do think we need to get back to work. Now that we have that part of the text translated, the rest of it should be easy.”

“I don’t wanna let go.”

Copia petted down the back of her head. “I know, and neither do I, but-”

Stephanie sighed and let him go. “But work needs to be done, yeah?”

He smiled lightly at her. “Yeah, it does.”

“Okay, but you owe me for working on my day off.”

The corner of his mouth perked up. “Of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update! With the virus roaming around, things have been chaotic. I promise I am not done with this work!


	18. Music Is The Window To The Soul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie has a talk with Imperator. Stephanie shows one of her talents off to Copia.

The next couple of weeks were excruciating. The next leg of the tour was coming up, so Copia was bouncing back and forth from working and then practicing. He seemed to never sleep, and it made Stephanie so upset to see him overworked like this. She even asked Imperator to cut him some slack since he was going to be gone soon anyway and he needed sleep. Of course, she said that he could handle it and that she wasn’t in a position to come and ask.

After the third day in a row that she woke up alone, she had enough of this. He needed his sleep as much as she did. He can’t keep saying that he’ll be in later and not come back from work. It just wasn’t fair to him and she could tell that it was getting to him. He’d snap at her for the little things and apologize over and over again. She never took offense to it since she knew he was just tired, but still, she hated that he wasn’t sleeping. She got ready for the day and swiftly made her way to their office.

Twisting the doorknob to the office, she noticed that it was locked. She cocked an eyebrow – he never locks this. Then she heard voices from the other side, so she put an ear up to the door to try and listen. One of the voices was definitely Copia, but she had a hard time hearing the other one. All she knew was that it was a woman by the higher tones. She could only hear bits and pieces of the conversation. The more she listened she realized that it was Imperator in there with him. That was even weirder because if she ever wanted to meet with him, it was in her own office.

“Well, think about it Cardinal. Just remember, there can only be one Papa,” Stephanie heard Imperator say clear as day and footsteps leading to the door. Shit! She ran around the corner as quickly and as quietly as she could. She heard Imperator close the door to the office and she decided that would be a good time to round the corner so it just looked like a coincidence.

“Oh! Good morning Imperator!” she said trying to sound surprised. By the look on Imperator’s face, she pulled it off.

“Good morning, Sister. I suppose you are going to the Cardinal’s office?”

“Yes, Sister.”

She hummed. “Yes, as I thought. First, would you come on a walk with me?”

“Uh, yeah. Sure, Sister.” She said wondering what the heck this was going to be about.

Walking down the hall, Imperator was silent. Did she really just want her to walk with her or what?

“Sister?” She finally piped up.

“Ah, yes?”

“The Cardinal tells me that he gave you something a couple of months ago.”

Stephanie knew exactly what she meant. “Uh, yes Sister. He did.”

“What are you thinking?”

“What do you mean?”

Imperator stopped. Stephanie realized they were all alone in this hall and she began to feel that fight or flight sense kick in and it was telling her to run. Her mind; however, was not communicating with her feet so she stood still just staring at Imperator wide-eyed.

“I mean exactly what I am asking. There is no hidden meaning. Even though I am hard on you, you are one of the best sisters here. I brought you in and taught you everything you know. I just want to make sure that you are wanting this.”

Stephanie was taken aback. Imperator hasn’t been this nice to her in a very long time. The last time was when she was still a Junior Sister and under Imperator’s wing. “Sister, no offense in what I say, but, why do you care all of a sudden?”

“No offense taken, Sister. I understand what you are feeling,” she sighed. “Look. I’m hard on you because I know you know better and I know that you know better. When I see you step out of line just a little bit, it sets me on edge because I do not want to see you go down a bad path.”

“I-I think I understand, but that still does not answer my question.”

“Answer mine first, child.”

“Well…” Stephanie trailed off trying to think of her feelings and how to word them. “At first, I really hated his guts. I was pissed and I really did not understand why I needed to be the one to work with him when there are a ton of other sisters. A couple of weeks passed, and I wasn’t mad anymore and I was enjoying myself. Then, a couple more weeks passed, and I realized that I began to have feelings for him. Then, my necklace happened. Well…then you know what happened after that. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that Sister, I love him. I really do. I want to be there for him, and I want him to be happy and healthy. I want to see him succeed and I want to just see him for the rest of my life,” she said basically going on a rant. She just blabbed all this out and when she finished, she could practically see the cogs in Imperator’s head spinning and processing all she just said.

“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear,” she finally said and put a hand on Stephanie’s shoulder. “You will be an amazing wife, Stephanie.”

Stephanie looked at her blinking quickly. “T-Thanks?” She was just so confused about why Imperator really wanted to have this talk with her. It suddenly dawned on her. “A-Are you feeling protective of me, Sister? Like, because you took me in, you feel a, ah, motherly bond?”

“Yes, I do. I was there for you when you needed me when you were so young. Now you are growing up and in cohorts with a high official in the church. I am proud yet very protective.”

“Uh, well, I guess that’s cool. I, uh, don’t really know what to say to that.”

“Don’t say anything. Go on, run back to him. Oh, and tell him he can stop working so hard. I can tell it’s bothering you so much since you even keep pestering me about it. Just have him focus on the tour coming up,” Imperator said squeezing her shoulder and smiled. It had been a long time since she had seen her smile like that. It frightened her, yet at the same time, it comforted her knowing that Imperator is letting down her walls.

“Thank you, Imperator. I’ll let him know and make sure he’s in tip-top shape for the tour,” Stephanie said as she turned to leave.

“Go with him this time Stephanie,” Imperator said.

Stephanie turned around. “Why? Won’t I just be a distraction?”

“Not at all. He seemed to perform better knowing you were there watching anyway. Not that I’m saying he was bad; it was just better.”

Stephanie smiled. “Okay, I’ll go this time. I’m not going to complain anyway. I enjoy rituals.”

Imperator laughed – how long has it been since Stephanie has heard that? It seems like forever ago. “Yes, I know. Now go, I have some business to attend to with Papa,” Imperator said and without another word left down the hall towards the catacombs where Papa’s office was. Stephanie turned the opposite direction to head back to her Cardinal hoping he hadn’t fallen asleep at his desk yet again.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sure enough, he was asleep and even drooling a bit. She really hated to have to wake him but getting him back to a bed instead of sleeping slouched on his desk was better. Shaking him gently, she tried to wake him. That didn’t work. “Copia, hun, you gotta get up,” she said shaking him a little more. That stirred him awake.

“Hmm…Stephanie. Did…did I fall asleep again?”

“Yeah, you did. I have news. Imperator said to stop working on this for the time being and only focus on the tour coming up. That means I am taking you away from this room for a while and you are going to sleep.”

“Oh, no. I can’t do that. These texts-”

“Can wait until after the tour. Come on. You are obviously exhausted, and I hate seeing you like this. Please?”

He chuckled. “Alright. If Imperator said to take a break, then a break I shall take. Come. Let’s go on up to our room eh?”

“Yes, lets,” Stephanie said smiling and taking his hand into hers.

They walked back, hand-in-hand, to their room. Smiling and nodding to some of the people they passed, Stephanie got the feeling she was being watched. She kept looking over her shoulder and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. She decided to go on it was the Dark Lord Himself looking up at her and move on before she freaked herself out too much.

They entered their room and she ushered Copia to the bedroom immediately. “I don’t care what you say, or even what you actually want to do. You are getting some sleep. You can already see the black eyes under your face paint.”

“Ok ok. Lo faro,” he said yawning. “Come snuggle with me at least?”

Stephanie smiled. “Of course, I will. I’ve missed you so fucking much at night.”

“Mi dispiace per quello.”

“It’s okay. You are here now,” she said as she got in bed next to him and snuggled up to him being the little spoon.

“Mmh, this is nice,” he said squeezing her tightly against him. Stephanie couldn’t help but hum in agreement. “Cara, you are one amazing woman,” he whispered into her hair already slightly asleep.

“Well, you are one amazing man.”

Sleepily, he kissed the back of her head and chuckled. “I love you.”

She felt her heart melt. She loved it when he said it to her in English. She, of course, loved it no matter what, but for him to feel comfortable enough to say it outside of Italian just made her heart soar. “I love you, Copia.” She could tell he already fell asleep and she laid there with him feeling like she was at home in his arms. Soon, being all comfortable and relaxed with her Cardinal, sleep soon took her as well.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Her eyes fluttered open and looked at the time. It was three and she wondered how she was able to sleep so long. That was until she felt Copia’s breath against her neck. She smiled to herself knowing that he’s going to feel so much better after this much sleep. Then it dawned on her. It’s three.

“Fuck! Copia get up!” she screeched jumping out of his arms and out of the bed.

He slurred in Italian as he awoke. “What? What’s the issue?”

“It’s three! Practice starts at three!”

Copia’s eyes widened and jumped out of bed himself as if he was never asleep. “Oh, satana qui sotto. Vaffanculo!” He said rushing to put his shoes back on. “Andiamo, Stephanie!”

“I’m hurrying as fast as I fucking can!” She spat out while trying to put on her boots. Fuck these things and the many strings.

They literally ran to practice where, as they got closer, they could hear the instruments already at full blast. Bursting into the door and breathing heavily, the two saw all the ghouls immediately stop playing about. Dew whistled and the ghouls all laughed.

“Wow. Never took you guys as the fuck and go type of people,” Dew snickered.

“That is not what happened!” Stephanie pouted while putting her hands on her hips still trying to catch her breath.

“Sure. That’s why your hair is perfect and not in an ‘I just got fucked really good’ style right?” Swiss chimed in.

“Fuck you, Swiss,” she spat at him and began to mess with her hair.

Copia, red in the face from embarrassment, cleared his throat. “We, uh, actually took a nap and overslept.”

“Suuure,” Dew said winking at the other ghouls behind him.

“Can you two stop being children?” Aether asked them crossing his arms.

“Pssh. You laughed earlier too, so don’t even!” Stephanie pouted.

The other ghouls snickered. And Copia clapped his hands together. “Alright. That’s enough. We need to practice,” he said sounding very serious. All the ghouls calmed down instantly, feeling the vibes that he was putting off, and went back to their respective instruments without another word.

Stephanie went and sat down in the back of the room so she could hear things differently than up in the front. As they practiced, she would point out certain things that sounded weird or even if someone was off tune. This went on for a couple of hours and Stephanie tried to contain herself from singing along.

When practice was over, Copia and ghouls began chatting and Stephanie came up to the stage area. Instead of going right to the group, she went over to the piano that sat in the corner untouched. She remembered the days that she would come here and just play it and it looks as if it has been neglected for some time. She ran her fingers over it, mulling over how long it really has been and saw the layer of dust cling to her finger.

“Do you play?” Copia asked which startled her.

“Oh! Uh, yeah. I mean, I used to.”

“Used to?”

“Y-Yeah. I used to come here and just play stuff when I was lonely or even just bored. It kept my mind off things.”

“Hmm. I know exactly what you mean.”

“What?”

“Well, I can’t play shit. But I used to do certain things to keep my mind off things. Read, study, write,” he said as he himself wiped a finger across the piano. “It looks as if you haven’t been here in a while, cara,” he mentioned as he wiped the dust off his glove.

“Yeah. It’s…it’s been a long time.”

“Play something then.”

Stephanie got red. “Oh. I don’t think I could anymore.”“You are a smart woman. I’m sure you could pick it up quickly. You have picked up two different languages quicker than I could pick up one,” he said reaching for one of her hands and holding it. “Come. Play something.” He led her to the bench and guided her to sit.

Stephanie started fiddling with her ring and bit her lip quickly. It had been so long, and she didn’t want to look stupid in front of him. “I-I don’t know Copia. I don’t even know what to try and play.

“Anything. Just listen from your heart.”

She looked at the keys and then closed her eyes. She took a slow and deep breath in and out. She only remembered one whole song to play, so that’s what she was going to do. She slowly put her hands to the keys and began to play the melodic song she learned to play as a child. The one song she finally got down on her own when she was in her first couple of months in the church.

It all came rushing back to her as she played the smooth keys, surprised to find the piano still in tune – someone must come in here and tune it. She scooted over and motioned for Copia to sit next to her as she played. He sat next to her and wrapped a hand and placed it in the small of her back. She kept playing it, and soon just closed her eyes and played as the muscle memory kicked in. She felt relaxed as she soon felt Copia lean into her more. She looked over at him and saw him smiling with his own eyes closed, enjoying the music she was producing. She wondered if this was the same feeling she got when she listened to the band perform.

Soon, she finished the song and felt the euphoria of playing again begin to swell. She missed this, even if it at first was something her parents forced her to start learning all that time ago. She heard Copia hum next to her. “È stato meraviglioso, amore,” he smoothly said and leaned in and kissed her. “Non stupendo come te.”

“Thanks. I love that song.”

“Beethoven, yes?”

“Yeah. Moonlight Sonata.”

“You were amazing, bellissima.”

She smiled. “You know, that wasn’t even all of it. I only played half of it. I can play the other part too, I just can’t with you sitting next to me,” she said giggling.

“Oh.”

“It’s because it gets intense, so I need space. It’s not because I don’t want you next to me.”

“Oh! Well, I get up. You play. I want to hear it!” He said scurrying away from the seat.

“Right now?”

“Sì.”

She giggled. Full of happiness for playing again, she picked up where she left off and began the quick-paced part of the song. She got the muscle movement down so quickly, she barely had to think of what was coming next. And just like that, she was smiling as she played and she could see Copia smiling with her. She enjoyed making him smile like that and it set her heart aflame.

She finished the song for real this time and put her hands in her lap. She sighed and got up from the piano. “Let’s go before I start playing other stuff,” she said smiling inwardly.

“Oh, you have more tricks up your sleeve?”

She grabbed his hand. “Yes, but that can be saved for a different day. I don’t want to share all my secrets yet,” she said winking.

Copia laughed. “All right. Let’s go get some lunch. I’m starving.”

“What you making us this time?”

“Hmm. I’m thinking some pasta.”

“You always think pasta,” she said staring at him.

“Okay, okay. We can do something else. How about, uh, shit. That’s all I can think of now.”

“Okay, you carb-loving fool. Let’s go get some pasta,” she said as she drug him out of the room.

As they headed down the hall Copia let out a breathy laugh. “What?” Stephanie asked as they continued to walk hand-in-hand.

“You know, cara. Now I know how you are so good with your hands,” he said with a smirk.

She punched him in his shoulder. “Shut the fuck up.”

“And that’s why you are good with your mouth.”

“You want to die don’t you?”

He laughed hard. “Oh, amore. You are so fun to tease.”

“Uh-huh. Let’s see who has the last laugh when I withhold sex from you.” He squeaked – literally squeaked.

“Oh my god. You fucking squeaked! That is the fucking highlight of my day right there!”

Red with embarrassment, Copia nervously giggled. “I thought you seeing me shake my ass for you would have been the highlight,” he quipped.

“Your ass is about to be dead if you don’t shut the fuck up,” she quipped back and smiled.

“Amore, I know you wouldn’t kill me anyway. I gotta get you back so I can feed you so you aren’t, uh, what do you call it? Hangry?”

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose and then laughed. “Yes, you idiot. That’s the word.” Knowing that she of all people could call the highest Cardinal in the church an idiot and get away with it made her laugh a little harder than she wanted as they reached their room.

“What pasta you making me?” she asked as they entered.

“Hmm. I’m thinking penne.”

“Of fucking course you are.”

“Yes. It’s delicious,” he said as he headed towards the kitchen. “Oh,” he quickly said and grabbed Stephanie by her hips, drawing him to her. He leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Also when I fuck you senseless tonight, you are going to want to scream it.”


	19. America Here We Come

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ghost goes to America!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MY GOODNESS! IM SO SORRY IT HAS TAKEN SO LONG TO UPDATE GUYS!  
> In light of my horrible writer's block and me getting stuck in a Statistics class that was kicking my butt, it has taken wayyyyyyyy too long to finish this chapter. I will not be uploading two this time, just this one. I figured ya'll waited long enough! Enjoy and as always let me know if there is anything that I need to fix and or add! See you soon with the next chapter!

The tour sprang up on them quickly and this time they needed to be packed well in advance as the whole leg of it was in America. They were to start in California and make their way across the country. Stephanie was excited. She hadn’t been to America since she was a preteen. She grew up in a small town in Arizona, not too far from Phoenix. That’s where she met the band in the first place. It was on the _Black to the Future_ tour and it was their last stop in the States. She ran away from home one night with a friend to finally go see them since her parents hated metal music in general (It was the devil’s music they would say). There, she met Imperator and never looked back to that small town again.

Even though she was okay being away from her family, she always felt a little homesick from the warm desert that she knew all too well. Knowing that she will be close to that again made her excited. What was even more exciting was being able to share a hotel room with her Cardinal. Of course, he was still going to be super busy during the day and of course at night with the rituals, but after everything is said and done, they will be together. It also didn’t help that she was looking forward to the copious amount of hotel sex they were going to have.

“Amore, look,” Copia said behind her snapping her out of her head. She turned and saw him holding up two new suits – one red one and one white one. “What, uh, what do you think?”

“If they are as skintight as your black one, then they are fucking hot is what I think,” she said with a smirk. She stood up from her own suitcase and walked over and poked his stomach. “Also, if you stop eating so many carbs, you’ll probably lose that belly you hate so much.”

“Ah, but carbs are so delicious! But you are still right. You can see the little bit of pudge in these suits, no?” He asked patting his own stomach.

“Yeah you can, but it’s still fucking sexy on you. I’m pretty sure no one is going to even pay attention to that,” she purred as she cupped his crotch. Copia jumped, not expecting her to just suddenly grab him. Stephanie squeezed quickly and let go giggling to herself. “You are so jumpy, and I love it.” She started back towards her suitcase to keep packing.

Copia grumbled something and then smacked her ass making her yelp. “I’m not the only one that is so jumpy,” he said chuckling and put the newly tailored suits on the bed. Stephanie looked back at him and stuck her tongue out at him making him laugh again. She then crouched down to keep packing. “Hmm. I wonder which one I should wear first?”

“Just wear your cassocks first. Get the fans excited to see you like that first and then wow them with your sexiness,” Stephanie said into her suitcase as she folded socks into it.

“Hmm. That is one good idea. I shall do so.” There was a sudden knock on the door. “I’ll go get it,” he said and left while Stephanie continued to pack.

“Amore, we have a visitor,” Copia said returning with Gabriel in tow a couple of seconds later.

She turned her head towards the door and saw Gabriel and Copia coming into the room. “Hey!” Stephanie exclaimed, got up from packing, and ran over to give Gabriel a hug.

“Hey yourself!” she said back with a returning hug. “I heard this morning that you are going on the ritual tour this time. I’m so excited for you!”

“I’m excited too!”

“I came here wishing you luck, both of you! Also, I hope you have a great time being back in the States Steph!”

“I’m only a little worried, but I’ll be okay,” she said with a faint smile.

“Amore, why are you worried?” Copia asked as he gingerly packed up his new suits.

“I shouldn’t be but being back in the States…I’m just paranoid about, well, my family.”

“Oh, I didn’t even think about them. I’m sorry Steph,” Gabriel said folding her hands together in front of her.

“Everything will be okay. You will be with us all the time. No need to fret,” Copia said as he finally shut his last of his four bags.

“I know. I just have always fretted over going back. I just feel like they are going to go a ritual close to them to try and find me to drag me back into their shit show. That’s why I haven’t gone back to the States at all. I just have an ever-living fear they are going to show up or that I’m going to run into them at some point and I’ll be kidnapped.”

“Don’t think about that Steph. You are an adult now when back then you weren’t. They can’t do anything to you but talk to you. Besides, why would they show up? I thought that they stayed away from bands like Ghost?” Gabriel stated.

“Yeah, I guess you are right. But just the thought of that scares me,” she said as she felt Copia’s arm slither around her waist to hold her.

“Don’t you fret. We will protect you if that ever happens. You are, as Imperator says, my sister,” he said squeezing her.

“You two are too cute and-” Gabriel started and cut herself off by putting a hand up to her mouth. “Bathroom. Where? Now.” Stephanie pointed towards it and Gabriel dashed off.

“Morning sickness,” Stephanie said flatly. “Glad I don’t have to deal with that.”

“You will in the future,” Copia said in an almost whisper.

Stephanie went rigid. Of course she would at some point, but she never really thought about it too hard. She really couldn’t think of herself as a mom either. She had a horrible mouth, no motherly instincts, and even just hated kids in general. “Uh. Yeah, I know,” she said emotionless. Before Copia could respond, Gabriel came back from the bathroom looking skittish.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been having horrible morning sickness lately.

“It’s okay. We understand,” Stephanie said with a smile. “How have you been doing other than the morning sickness?”

“I’ve been doing alright. I’ve been avoiding Sister Imperator as much as I can minus classes and masses. Other than that, I’ve just been living each day and praying that everything is going to be alright.”

“That’s good,” Stephanie said and walked over to Gabriel and hugged her. “You are going to be a wonderful mother.”  
Gabriel hugged her back. “Thanks, Steph.” She let Stephanie go and smiled. “Now, enough about me. You two need to finish getting ready since you are leaving soon, and I don’t want to distract you. I’ll talk to you later. Call me when you make it, okay?”

“Of course. Keep yourself and that little one safe,” Stephanie said as she walked Gabriel out.

“You guys stay safe too,” she said as she waved and walked out the door.

She shut the door and turned to see Copia leaning up against the doorframe to the bedroom looking at her. “What?”

“I’m thinking.”  
“About?”  
“How this tour is going to go. I can’t help but think that something is going to happen near the end.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“Just a gut feeling.”  
Stephanie walked over to him and hugged him. “It’ll be okay. With us together, there is no one able to stop us.”

Copia smiled and hugged her back. “You are right, cara. Let’s get going though, we don’t want to be late.” He let her go and they went and began to bring their bags down to the car to go to the airport.

Stepping outside of the airport, a warm breeze hit her. The smell of exhaust hung in the air. Something that reminded her of home. California, being nine hours behind, made her jet lag even worse. She literally thought she would pass out on the pavement standing there waiting for everyone until an older gentleman came up to her.

“Excuse me miss, are you alright?” The guy asked.

“Yes, sir. I’m waiting for my group to come out,” she responded, feeling her hand subconsciously move to her necklace.

“You were swaying a little bit. Looked like you about to fall over. I just wanted to make sure you were okay, sweetheart,” he said smiling and putting a hand on her shoulder. Everything in her body screamed run, but she was frozen to the spot. “You don’t sound like you are from around here, yet your English is very good. Do you need help getting around?”

“Uh. No. No thank you, sir,” she said shrugging the man’s hand off her shoulder. It didn’t work, he put it back and placed his other hand on her other shoulder and squeezed.

“Don’t be afraid beautiful. I can help you, just tell me where you need to go,” the guy said with a sly smile that made Stephanie jump.  
“I don’t think that would be necessary,” someone said behind her and her heart leaped. That thick Italian accent, she’d know that anywhere even if she was frozen in fear. “Please, kind sir, if you would let go of my woman?” the Cardinal sternly asked as the ghouls showed up behind him as well.

“What? I, uh. Yeah. Sorry, miss,” the guy said taking his hands off of her shaking. “I was just making sure she was stable. She was swaying. You oughta take care of her better,” he said and walked away looking over his shoulder occasionally looking frightened.

“Amore. Are you alright?” Copia asked her, bringing her in for a hug.

Shaking, she hugged him back. “Yes, I am alright. Just a little shaken up.”

He kissed the top of her head. “It’s ok. I’m sorry for leaving you out here for so long.”

“It wasn’t even that long. That guy was just a creep.”

“Hey, even if that guy got ahold of you, we could track you down sister,” Swiss said while tapping his nose. It was weird for Stephanie to see the ghouls without their masks on again. The ghouls could take form to look more human than ghoul, which she has seen before, but it was still just weird.

“I know. Thank you for the support though, Swiss,” Stephanie said smiling and then yawned. “I’m tired, can we get going to our hotel yet?”

“Right this way, amore,” Copia said putting his hand in the small of her back leading her towards a stretch of black vehicles.

Copia and Stephanie got to share a car while the ghouls each fought over who was riding with who. Climbing in, Stephanie snuggled up to her Cardinal and laid her head on his shoulder. Before the car could move, she was fast asleep with him holding her to him.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Stephanie? Amore? Time to wake up. We are here,” Stephanie heard out of her drowsy state as she was slowly being shaken awake.

“Hmm?” she moaned out and opened her eyes to see Copia smiling at her. “Oh. I didn’t realize I fell asleep.”

“It’s alright, cara. Let us get you inside,” he said as he grabbed her hand and led her out of the car.

In the hotel, Stephanie sunk into one of the couches in the lobby as she waited for the rest of the gang to get the keys for the rooms that they were to be staying in. She looked around at the architecture of the hotel. It was so fancy, and she couldn’t believe that she was in a hotel that looked like this. The last time she was in a hotel she was still very young, and it was during a church retreat. She could remember that hotel being quite run down. The hallways looked like a murder hotel they were so dingy, but at least she got to escape by going swimming in the pool or hanging out with people who brought Guitar Hero.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Copia saunter up to her which caused her to snap back to the present. Turning her head, she looked at him and smiled. “Are we ready to finally get settled in?” she asked as he offered her his hand to help her stand.

“Yes, we are. Come on, amore,” he said as she lightly pulled her up from the couch, “we are in room 504.”  
“Hmm. Top floor huh? Sounds…fancy,” she said wagging her eyebrows at him and laughed. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking tired,” she said through her laughs.

Copia, catching her contagious laugh, laughed back. “Let’s get you to bed. We have a long day tomorrow,” he cackled out and they both headed towards where the elevators were.

Copia pushed the button to head up and wrapped his arm around Stephanie’s waist and rested his head on top of hers. “Steph?” he mumbled out looking towards the door anticipating its arrival.

“Hmm?” she hummed feeling herself getting super tired again.

“I’m a little worried about this tour, and I’m not sure why,” Copia said as he squeezed her closer to his side. “I feel like something is going to go wrong, or that something is going to happen to you or even us.”  
Stephanie wrapped her own hand around her Cardinal’s waist. “Don’t worry hun. As you said, we have each other. We can fight anything back together. I’m here for the long haul and I’m really sure you know that based on what He has decided for us. I’m not one to go against our Lord’s will.”

“Yes,” he said as the elevator dinged and opened its doors for them, “I guess you are correct.” They walked onto the elevator and Stephanie pushed the number five button. The doors slowly closed, and the elevator began its ascension.

Stephanie glanced up at Copia and saw that his eyes were closed with a solemn look on his face. “Hey, whatcha thinking?” she asked poking his stomach. That got him to smile.

“Still about that weird feeling I’m having. However; now, I am thinking about how I can work off this pudge I have gotten by fucking you like crazy,” he said smirking.

Stephanie smacked his arm and laughed. “Dammit Copia. I’m too fucking tired to have sex right now.”  
He chuckled. “Oh, I know,” he said as the elevator came to a stop on their floor and opened its doors to their floor. “I just like to see you all flustered,” he said as he smacked her ass, which made Stephanie yelp and then walked out of the elevator laughing.

Stephanie chased him down and punched him in the arm laughing along with him. “You know, if you weren’t so damn cute and if He didn’t want this, I’m sure I would hate you.”

He laced his fingers into hers and scoffed. “Yeah, I don’t think you could stay away from this,” he said as he waved his free hand down in front of him and winked.

“Yeah, you are pretty sexy. Plus, that cock of yours is a bonus,” she said slyly and grinned.

Copia hummed and smiled as they came upon their room. He swiped the key card in and quickly back out and opened the door. Stephanie walked into the darkroom and Copia flicked on the light behind her.

“Unholy fuck,” she said practically letting the words flood from her mouth. She couldn’t believe her eyes and this room that they had. To the right of the room, there was an elaborate black sofa that wrapped around the wall with a couple of end tables and a coffee table. Across from that was a large wall-mounted TV. There was also a wet bar in the room and a door that was across from her that probably lead towards the bedroom. “Copia, this is fancy as fuck. I’m never going to want to leave.”

“Just wait till you see the bedroom. You’ll never want to leave there either,” he said as he grabbed her hand and lead her in. Walking towards the bedroom, they passed the bathroom. There was a nightlight in there so all Stephanie could see was that there was a big tub (which she assumed was a jacuzzi tub) and a full-sized walk-in shower.

As they entered the bedroom, Copia flicked on the light and Stephanie’s jaw dropped in awe. “What the fuck. Why is everything in this room so fucking fancy? You know what? I don’t care. I’m going to go faceplant into that giant ass fluffy looking bed and pass the fuck out,” she said as she began to trudge her feet towards the king-sized bed draped in black.

Copia grabbed her hand. “Hold on darling. We must get you out of your clothes first.”

Stephanie groaned. “Fine. Strip me,” she said as she raised her hands out to her sides.

“Normally, I would take that as an invitation, but I know that you are tired,” Copia said smiling as he started to peel Stephanie’s clothes off her. As he did so, Stephanie saw the worry in his face return.

“Hey, what’s the matter hun? Something has been bothering you all day.”

“I just have this weird feeling that something is going to go wrong on this tour. Like, why would everyone be coming to this? Imperator, Papa, some other random sisters? This is just smelling fishy to me. Like how the three Papa’s were murdered. That’s how weird I feel,” he said as Stephanie finished stripping off her pants.

Crawling into bed, Stephanie watched as Copia stripped down to his boxers. She felt her eyes getting heavy, but her mind was racing. What if he’s right? What if something bad is going to happen? “Copia? What do you even think would be happening? Like, what could even happen?”

“I’m not sure, cara,” Copia said as he crawled on the opposite side of the bed. “All I know is that I’m having a horrible feeling, but it is something that I cannot dwell on for the shows must go on.” He laid down and wrapped his arm around her and brought her close to him. “Let us sleep now, darling. We have a busy day ahead of us.”

Stephanie nuzzled into him and yawned. “You are right. Let’s just take it one day at a time.” She rolled over and kissed Copia. “Bedtime honey,” she whispered on his lips and kissed him again. “I love you, my Cardinal.”  
“I love you, my Sister.”  
“Goodnight, love,” Stephanie said kissing him again and rolling over to get back into little spoon position.

Copia kissed the back of her head and gripped her tightly. “Good night, amore mio.”


	20. The New Recruit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A ritual brings light to a new member.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm again sorry for how long this took to put out. I'm trying to make these longer so please bear with me! PSA: There is just a little smut at the end of the chapter!

The tour dates were going by with no issues to be had. Every day, Stephanie and Copia would get up at five, shower, get ready, and head to practice. Then, they would get something light to eat and hit up the town to see what is around. They would go back to the hotel for a couple of hours and relax until it was time to go to the venue. The whole band would hop into cars and head to the venue they would play at. When there, sound checks happened, rehearsals, a light dinner, more rehearsals, and then it was basically show time.

Stephanie would kiss Copia for good luck and make her way to change into her ritual attire and get her spot in the front row. She would see him on stage goofing off, causing women to fall in love with him, and even thirsting after the ghouls on stage. He would make the crowd do whatever he pleased just by a wave of his hand. He could get them to sing parts of a song or even just laugh because of how he goofed off. It was a thrill seeing him prance around up there like he was a different person, but she loved him the more because of it.

The first night when she finally got to see his new red and white suits, she was floored by how tight they were on him and how fucking horny it made her to see him like that. You could see his cock for miles in those suits, but the white one was the one that showed the most bulge. It was enough that someone pointed it out at a concert. He acted as if he was embarrassed about it by covering up his crotch for a bit, but then he just kept going on waving that thing around like it was nothing – probably proud that his dick got noticed. This made her love him even more.

Stephanie was entranced and became even more entranced when Copia decided to Cirice her that first night as well. She always had tried to tell him to not Cirice her since she was already a part of the church and that she was his, but he just didn’t listen that night. He probably could sense what he was doing to her and wanted to make it worse – the smug bastard.

When the concerts were over, they made their way back to whatever hotel they were staying in for the night. They would basically be naked just as the door shut behind them. They couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. The concerts were just a huge rush for them, and they took out that rush with each other. Sometimes it lasted for hours while other times it was in bursts of multiple sessions. No matter what, that was the evening activities for them which usually followed with them calling room service for food.

Almost every night, with no avail, Copia still brought up that feeling of something is going to go wrong. Stephanie took it upon herself and decided to continue to squash those ideas down. She didn’t enjoy seeing him like that nor did she see anything going wrong. Not once has anything bad happened during the tour except for the panic attack Stephanie had one night thinking she saw her mother when it was actually someone who just looked similar.

When the last leg of the tour was coming up, Copia started disappearing to talk to Imperator more and more. He would tell Stephanie to stay behind so she wouldn’t get bored in meetings. She would stay in the room and watch tv, read a book, play on her phone, or just anything at all to keep her mind off her loneliness. She would watch the time and look at the door every time she heard the noise of someone coming down the hallway outside. Some days he’d be gone for only an hour, others he’d be gone for many hours.

Every time he came back, she was so excited to see him again, but he looked ragged. He never wanted to talk about it either and tried to change the subject to talk about her. It was starting to piss her off. She was really fucking annoyed that he would be all fine and then not and then try and play it off. He was closing her out and she was really fucking tired of it.

One day, he came back from another meeting and the same shit happened. Stephanie was done – this was the final time. He was not going to shut her out anymore. “Copia, for fuck's sake. Can you just fucking tell me what is going on!? I’m sick and tired of you coming back here like this and shutting me the fuck out. You love me, don’t you!?”

“What? Of course, I do. Why would you even ask me that?” Copia snapped back.

“If you truly love me, then you wouldn’t shut me out anymore! I’m fucking tired of you leaving here, going to those fucking meetings, and coming back as if you had just had your energy sucked out of you. Then you try and move on as if nothing happened, but I know that’s not true. Copia. Please, darling. Please don’t fucking keep me out. Seriously. I’m about to go to Imperator myself to give her a piece of my mind.”

“That wouldn’t do anything for you at all except piss her off too and you know it,” Copia snapped as he put one hand to his forehead and one on his hip.

“Well then just quit shutting me out, Copia! I love you and I’m here for you. Please, just let me help you!”

Copia slowly walked over, sat down next to her, put his head in his hands, and sighed. “You are right, amore. I should not keep you out, but there is a reason why I have been.”

“Why?”

“I was sworn to secrecy. If I told you, not only would Imperator be upset, but He would be upset as well. I have taken an oath that I cannot break just because I love you.”

Stephanie processed Copia’s words for a moment. She nodded to herself fully understanding where he was coming from. She put her hand on Copia’s shoulder and squeezed. “Hey. I understand. You could have told me that in the beginning. I would still be pissed that whatever is going on is causing you strife, but if I knew that you really couldn’t because of that, I wouldn’t be as mad. I’m sorry for going off on you, hun.”

Copia picked his head up out of his hands and looked at her. They sat like that for a little bit, just staring into each other’s eyes. Slowly, Copia reached up and stroked Stephanie’s face with a thumb, leaned in, and kissed her softly. Their lips parted and he smiled at her – the first smile he has had all night. “I love you, Stephanie.”

Stephanie smiled back and took his hands into hers. “I love you, Copia. Do you forgive me?”

“There is no need to ask me for forgiveness, cara. Everything is alright. I promise, okay?” He said as he kissed her again, this time with a little more intensity. “You will know soon, my dove. I promise,” he said when he broke the kiss.

“Yeah? Is it worth all this strife you are feeling?”

Copia broke eye contact with her and looked off a moment and sighed. “I’m not sure yet. We will see when the time comes.”

“Oh? And how soon is that? Or do you not know?”

“Very soon, cara. I promise.”

“Okay, then I can wait. I promise I will not go off on you about it again.”

“Thank you, dove. Now, I know we have had, uh, a routine lately at night, but would you be okay with just going to bed tonight? I’m exhausted.”

“Of course, Copia. Let’s go to bed,” Stephanie said as she stood and offered her hand to him to help him up. He grabbed her hand and they went into the bedroom where they stripped down, got into the big bed, and snuggled together. Neither one lasted long as they both drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The United States part of the tour came and went by really quickly. Soon they were already back in Europe for the rest of the tour. Stephanie got to see many different countries that she had never dreamed that she’d be able to see. There was England, Denmark, Ireland, Scotland, and so many more. The best one that they stopped into was Italy. Here, on their time off, Copia decided to take Stephanie around to all the sites that she wanted to see and even brought her to the church that he stayed at previously. They had a nice dinner at one of the restaurants there and she realized how much of his cooking was based on home. The nightlife there in Italy was so different than back in the abbey – it was peaceful in some places and very lively at others. She couldn’t help but see Copia smiling a lot of the time when here, but he smiled even more when he looked at her. When it was time to leave Italy, she was sad to see it go, but the tour was almost over, so they were to be going home soon.

Still, even though it was almost over, Copia still disappeared each night for an hour or so to meet up with Imperator. He would come back still looking drained, but every day it got a little better. Stephanie thought about asking him if she could come with him one of the nights but decided against it just in case it was against His will for her to know yet. She started to get impatient since she really wanted to know what he was doing.

Finally, it was the last night of the tour in Toulouse, France. The same procedures that they went through each night occurred and Stephanie kissed Copia good luck and ran to the bathroom to change. The line was long for the bathroom with a bunch of people giggling about meeting Copia later on in the meet and greets. One girl turned around and she smiled widely.

“Oh my god, I finally got to meet you!” she screeched as she ducked out of her place in line and beelined towards Stephanie. Stephanie froze in her spot not knowing what to do. She doesn’t even know this girl. The girl stopped in front of her and was bouncing on the balls of her feet. “I never thought I would get to see you. You are, like, one of the most famous Ghost fans! You have been to every show! My name is Destiny!” she yelled aloud and smiled widely.

“Uh, hi? I’m, uh, Stephanie,” she said as she absentmindedly reached for her necklace.

“Oh my god! I LOVE your Grucifix! Where did you get it!?” Destiny gushed.

“Uh,” Stephanie said as she was floored. She didn’t know exactly how to answer it. Quickly she thought up a lie. “Uh, someone made it for me. It, uh, it resembles the Cardinal's.”

“Can I look at it? It looks so genuine!”

“Uh. Sure?” Stephanie said as she reached behind her neck to take it off, but Destiny reached in and just grabbed it making Stephanie jump.

“It’s gorgeous. Whoever made it has a great talent!”

Stephanie laughed nervously. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“I also really love your Sister of Sin cosplay!” she excitedly said as she dropped Stephanie’s necklace, “it’s like SUPER real looking! Where did you get it? I need to buy it, like, now.”

“Uh, cosplay? Oh, right. My habit. Uh, I got it from…” she trailed off. She couldn’t think of somewhere. She was so nervous.

“Oh, did you just Google it and buy it from a place?”

Wow, what a great idea. Why didn’t she think of that? “Yeah. That’s what happened. Sorry. I’m not very good at speaking to people.”

“It’s ok! I get it. I can be seen as over-energetic. It doesn’t help that I’m finally able to come to a Ghost concert again. I haven’t been able to go to one since Pale Tour. I can’t wait to meet the Cardinal again too! Do you think he’ll remember me?” she asked as she prattled on. Stephanie just stood there and listened as the line got closer and closer to the bathroom. She was closer to freedom. Finally, it was Destiny’s turn to head in and she sighed. “I’m sorry, I’ve been talking your ear off. It’s just nice to see someone who has been to so many shows and who has shown up in so many vids. My friends are going to FREAK when I tell them I met you. I’ll see you upfront, yeah? I’ll make sure no one takes your spot!” she said as she turned and headed into the bathroom.

Stephanie sighed a sigh of relief. She really didn’t enjoy talking to strangers. She couldn’t believe that people have been noticing her appearance at rituals though. It made her feel a little uncomfortable, yet somewhat happy. She couldn’t wait to tell Copia about this – he was going to laugh. Finally, someone left, and she was able to go in and change into her normal attire for the ritual – her torn jeans, Ghost tee, and combat boots. She finished quickly so others can actually use the toilet and went to the mirror to put on her face paint. Normally it is frowned upon for sisters to sport face paint, but here, as a Ghost fan, she could do whatever she wanted. Even Imperator said she was okay for doing it so at least someone had her back.

When she was done, she headed for the arena and found Destiny waiting in her spot. “Oh my god. Okay, guys! This is Stephanie! Stephanie these are my friends!”

“Uh, hi,” she said, again her hand going to her necklace. She needed to find the strength to talk to these girls.

“What happened to your cosplay?”

“Uh, I, uh…” she said trailing off. Fuck, she should have known she was going to get questioned if she changed. “Well, when I went to go use the restroom, my veil fell off into the toilet, so I had to change.”

“Oh my god! That’s horrible! I hope it washes well,” one of Destiny’s friends said.

Destiny looked as if she wasn’t having it but waved it off. “Well, we saved your spot for you. Some bitches tried to take it, but we fought them off,” she said smiling.

“Thank you.”

“Would you be okay if we stood here with you?”

“I don’t see a problem with it. It is a ritual after all.”

“Great!” Destiny said and jumped a little.

Luckily, the lights dimmed, and the ritual started. Stephanie got to see her man strutting his shit up there again, just like she did every night. During Cirice, Stephanie mentioned toward Destiny and Copia got the message. He Ciriced her, and Destiny looked as if she was going to faint. Copia winked at Stephanie and moved on with the rest of the ritual. As always it was magical.

When the ritual was complete, Stephanie stayed in her spot like normal watching the crowd dissipate. Just as she thought the last person left, she turned to hop on the stage and ran into Destiny - literally.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't know you were still here," Stephanie stammered out and backed up a bit.

“What are you doing?” Destiny asked, putting her hands on her hips.

“I, uh, well I was going to try and jump up there to see if I could get a sneak peek at the band,” Stephanie said as her hands wrung together in front of her.

“I’m not dumb. Look. If you are just a groupie just say something. I don't think you are though. There’s no need to hide it. Besides, I knew something was wrong when you came back in those clothes and didn’t even have a bag on you with your habit in it. Seriously. What is going on?”

“I have to go. I’m sorry. I cannot stay,” Stephanie said as she sidestepped Destiny and hopped up on the stage.

“Wait. Please?” Destiny called out to her sounding disappointed.

Stephanie stopped and looked at her and saw that she had tears in her eyes. “Ok, look. I know this will sound weird, but I know Ghost isn’t just a band. Please don’t ask me how I know, just hear me when I say I know. I know you are a Sister and that you know the Cardinal personally. I have seen vids online of you talking to him as if it was just a normal day. No one else takes notice, but I do. Just. Can I come with you?”

“What?”

“I want to join the church. Wherever it is. I want to follow Him.”

Stephanie looked at her like a deer looking into headlights. She was frozen. Did she really hear what she thought? Is this girl wanting her to take her to convert? If so, she’s never done this before – normally it’s Imperator’s job. She finally shook her head out of her shock. “Uh, well, here,” she said as she walked to the edge of the stage and held out her hand for Destiny to take.

Destiny grabbed her hand and climbed up on the stage with her. She had tears dripping down her face. “Thank you, Stephanie.”

“Yeah, uh. Okay, I’ve never done this before so give me a moment to compose,” she said taking in a shaky deep breath and letting it out. “Alright, why do you want to convert?”

“I seek enlightenment from Him. I believe that He is the way and that it is the right thing to do. He was cast down just because he gave the humans knowledge. What good am I if I cannot honor that sacrifice that He took for us every day by learning from it and thanking Him?” Destiny said sighing and looking down at the floor. She had a really good point and it was solid for what the church believed in as well.

“I have hidden my thoughts on this for a while from my friends and family,” she continued still looking down at the floor, “They all see me come here for rituals, but my friends are just fans and my family just doesn’t care. They think I’m not being serious when I say I believe. I want to be serious and I want to follow Him every day of my life from now on. Then, after tonight, I knew my choice was made when the Cardinal Ciriced me. I know that was your doing, but still. I felt the power in it, and I knew that this is what I wanted,” she said confidently yet still in tears.

Stephanie took in another shaky breath and let it out. “Come with me,” she said as she started walking away with Destiny in tow. They walked back through all the backstage areas until they came up to the dressing room area. Stephanie knew that Imperator would be here somewhere, and that’s who really needed to take care of this.

“Amore?” Stephanie heard from behind her. Fuck. She turned around and saw Copia walking up to them.

“Oh. Hey, Copia. Have you seen Imperator?” Stephanie asked and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Destiny go rigid.

“Oh. My. Fucking. God,” she stammered out, “It’s actually you.”

Copia held out his hand for Destiny to take – his anxiety still at bay due to the ritual. “Hello, and you are?”

Destiny took his hand and he kissed the back of it making her blush. “I-I’m Destiny,” she stammered out as Copia dropped her hand.

“Hello, Destiny. You know who I am, yes? Stephanie, darling, is she a friend of yours?”

“She, uh, not really. She actually wants to convert,” Stephanie said.

“Ah, so that is why you need Imperator. Come, come. She’s this way,” he said waving them back towards where he came from while Destiny and Stephanie followed him.

Stephanie could see her staring at his ass the whole time they walked down the hall. This sparked some jealousy in her even though she knew that most women lusted after him just as they lusted after The Third all the time. Even though she knew that Copia was hers, it still was hard to shove away the jealousy that brewed under her skin.

“So, you want to convert?” Copia asked snapping Stephanie back to what they were actually doing.

“Yes, Cardinal. I have been waiting to find someone who knows how I can convert. Luckily, I ran into Stephanie before the show,” Destiny replied as she glanced over and smiled at Stephanie.

“Ah, yes. Good. She’s amazing no?” he asked turning his head to look at Stephanie behind him and smiled brightly. He stopped in front of a door and knocked. “Sister, are you still in there?”

“Come in!” Stephanie heard Imperator call from the other side. At least she sounded like she was in a good mood. Copia opened the door and ushered the two women inside.

“Oh. Sister? What is this?” Imperator asked looking at Destiny as she put down a book that she was reading.

“Sister, this one here would like to convert,” Copia spoke up and waved his hand towards Destiny.

“Hmph. What is your name child?” Imperator huffed out and stood from her chair.

“D-Destiny ma’am,” Destiny stammered out clutching her hands together in front of her.

“How did you come to know about the church?”

“I had a hunch ma’am. I come to almost every ritual and I have seen vids online. I began noticing specific things, and that, well, that Stephanie, here, was at almost all of them. I met her before the ritual and things clicked. I have wanted to convert for awhile now ma’am, and after tonight, well, I thought this was no better time.”

“If you watch these videos online, then you must know who I am child,” Imperator stated as she walked forwards towards Destiny, stopping a foot away from her.

“Yes, ma’am I do.”

“Then you also know my proper title?”

Stephanie knew where this was going. Imperator did the same thing to her when she was taken in. She was just hoping Destiny was going to take it well.

“Yes, I do. You are Sister Imperator. My apologies, Sister. I won’t say your title wrong again.”

“Hmph. Good child. Now,” she said looking at Stephanie, “did you do your part Sister?”

“Yes, Sister. I asked the important questions and she answered them how the Clergy would want them to be answered,” Stephanie said proudly knowing that she actually did something right.

“Good. Destiny, right? Does anyone else you know want to convert or is it just you? What about your family? Do you know the consequences that could fall upon you and the church if you are to come to join us?” Imperator asked. These are all the questions that need to be asked. The church could not be in harm's way due to someone converting.

Copia took to a chair at the back of the room. Stephanie could tell his anxiety started to come back since he wasn’t standing proudly with them and he started fidgeting and playing with his gloves. She looked back at him as he sat and mouthed, “Are you okay?” She got a nod and a wave of his hand as a reply and she smiled at him and turned her attention back to the conversation that was at large between Imperator and Destiny.

“Well, I guess we are on good terms then,” Imperator said. Stephanie missed Destiny’s answer, but with a statement like that from Imperator, she knew that it was going to be okay in the end. “You will come back with me to the church. Do you need to get any belongings?”

“If I could, yes I would like to Sister. I want to say goodbye to my family and friends if that is okay as well?”

“Only if that is what is needed. I will come with you though. After everything is done, we shall head back to the church. I suspect that you will be alright without me for a while Cardinal?”

Copia’s head snapped up and Stephanie couldn’t help but giggle. The poor man looked like he fell asleep. “Uh, yes. We shall be okay without you for a bit Sister.”

“Good. Don’t forget about what we talked about tonight Cardinal. Let’s go, Destiny,” Imperator said snapping and began to lead Destiny out.

“Thank you, Stephanie. Even though we just met I see you as a friend that did me a lot of good tonight,” Destiny said smiling and waved goodbye as she walked out and shut the door behind her and Imperator.

“Well that was eventful,” Stephanie said sighing, “are you okay? Seemed like you fell asleep there for a moment.”

“Fell asleep? No. I spaced out thinking about some things,” Copia said as his eyes looked like they were blown with lust.

“Oh?”

“Oh, yes. I had to sit down – didn’t want Imperator to see this raging boner I have right now,” he said winking as he spread his legs apart to where Stephanie could see his bulge popping out of his tight pants.

“Dammit, Copia. Here I thought you were just getting anxious. No, you were just horny,” she said, not able to take her eyes off his crotch. She felt the heat within her stomach start to swelter and coil.

“It seems like I am not the only one, cara,” he said standing and sauntering over to her. He grabbed her by the waist quickly and brought her close to him. She could feel his dick press up against her. “I think this room is a good place to start our evening events, don’t you think cara? I think I might want to take you to the stage and make you feel good there as well. This sound good to you too?” he asked as he raked his hands up her sides making her sigh.

“Yes, oh god yes,” she got out as her eyes fluttered closed as she felt him touch her. She felt him come close to her ear and felt his breath on it making her own hitch.

“God cannot, and will not, help you at all tonight, Steph. You are mine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A special thanks to my friend GasolineGhuleh for helping me with this chapter! Go check out her stuff either here or on Tumblr! She is another great Ghost writer and deserves all the love! <3 <3 <3
> 
> https://gasolineghuleh.tumblr.com/  
> https://archiveofourown.org/users/GasolineGhuleh/works
> 
> Thanks, guys! And thank you again GasolineGhuleh! <3


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